英文法律词典 I-34

INELIGIBILITY¹. The incapacity to be lawfully³ elected.

2. This incapacity arises from various, causes, and a person may be incapable⁴ of being elected to one office who may, be elected to another; the incapacity may also be perpetual or temporary.

3. - 1. Among perpetual inabilities may be reckoned, 1. The inability of women to be elected to a public office. 2. Of citizens born in a foreign country to be elected president of the United States.

4. - 2. Among the temporary inabilities may be mentioned, 1. The holding of an office declared by law to be incompatible⁵ with the one sought. 2. The non-payment of the taxes required by law. 3. The want of certain property qualifications required by the constitution. 4. The want of age, or being over the age required. Vide Eligibility². Incompatibility⁶.

INEVITABLE⁷ ACCIDENT. A term used in the civil law, nearly synonymous with fortuitous. event. (q. v.) 2 Sm. & Marsh⁸. 572. In the common law commonly called the ad of God. (q. v.) 2 Smed. & Marsh. Err⁹. & App. 572.

INFAMIS. Among the Romans was of a general rule, and not by virtue¹⁰ of an arbitrary decision of the censors¹¹, lost his political rights, but preserved his civil rights. Sav. Dr. Rom 79.

INFAMY¹², crim. law, evidence. That state which is produced by the conviction of crime and the loss of honor, which renders the infamous¹³ person incompetent¹⁴ as a witness.

2. It is to be considered, 1st. What crimes or punishment incapacitate a witness. 2d. How the guilt¹⁵ is to be proved. 3d. How the objection answered. 4th. The effect of infamy.

3. - 1. When a man is convicted of an offence which is inconsistent with the common principles of honesty and humanity, the law considers his oath to be of no weight, and excludes his testimony¹⁶ as of too doubtful and suspicious a nature to be admitted in a court of justice to deprive another of life, liberty or property. Gilb. L. E. 256; 2 Bulst. 154; 1 Phil. 23; Bull. N. P. 291. The crimes which render a person incompetent, are treason; 5 Mod. 16, 74; felony; 2 Bulst. 154; Co. Litt. 6; T. Raym. 369; all offences founded in fraud, and which come within the general. notion of the crimen falsi of the Roman law; Leach¹⁷, 496; as perjury¹⁸ and forgery¹⁹; Co. Litt. 6; Fort. 209; piracy²⁰ 2 Roll. Ab. 886; swindling, cheating; Fort. 209; barratry; 2 Salk. 690; and the bribing²¹ a witness to absent himself from a trial, in order to get rid of his evidence. Fort. 208. It is the crime and not the punisshment which renders the offender²² unworthy of belief. 1 Phill. Ev. 25.

4. - 2. In order to incapacitate the party, the judgment²³ must be proved as pronounced by a court possessing competent jurisdiction²⁴. 1 Sid. 51; 2 Stark²⁵. C. 183; Stark. Ev. part 2, p. 144, note 1; Id. part 4, p. 716. But it has been held that a conviction of an infamous crime in another country, or another of the United States, does not render the witness incompetent on the ground of infamy. 17 Mass. 515. Though this doctrine²⁶ appears to be at variance²⁷ with the opinions entertained by foreign jurists, who maintain that the state or condition of a person in the place of his domicil accompanies him everywhere. Story, Confl. 620, and the authorities there cited; Foelix, Trait« De Droit Intern²⁸. Priv«, 31; Merl. R«pert, mot Loi, 6, n. 6.

5. - 3. The objection to competency may be answered, 1st. By proof of pardon. See Pardon. And, 2d. By proof of a reversal by writ²⁹ of error, which must be proved by the production of the record.

6. - 4. The judgment for an infamous crime, even for perjury, does not preclude³⁰ the party from making an affidavit³¹ with a view to his own defence. 2 Salk. 461 2 Str. 1148; Martin's Rep. 45. He may, for instance, make an affidavit in relation to the irregularity of a judgment in a cause in which he, is a party, for otherwise he would be without a remedy. But the rule is confined to defence, and he cannot be heard upon oath as complainant. 2 Salk. 461 2 Str. 1148. When the witness becomes incompetent from infamy of character, the effect is the same as if he were dead and if he has attested³² any instrument as a witness, previous to his conviction, evidence may be given of his handwriting. 2 Str. 833; Stark. Ev. part. 2, sect³³. 193; Id. part 4, p. 723.

7. By infamy is also understood the expressed opinion of men generally as to the vices³⁴ of another. Wolff, Dr. de la Nat. et des Gens, 148.