Godwin

Defendant has been convicted of the seduction of a female of previous chaste character, under a promise of marriage, and now prosecutes this appeal. Rulings upon the admissibility of evidence are mainly relied upon for a new trial.

Defendant placed one St. Clair upon the witness stand, and in answer to a direct question he testified that he never had had sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix. He was thereupon asked if he had not at several specific times and places stated to certain individuals that he had had such intercourse with the prosecutrix. Objections were sustained to these questions, and such rulings are now insisted upon as error. The action of the trial court has full support .in the law. It is only when the witness gives hostile evidence that a party may impeach him by showing contradictory statements made at other times. The answer of the witness being "no,” the evidence was purely of a negative character. It was neither favorable to one side nor the other, and, if the witness had been impeached, the case before the jury would have assumed no different aspect. The only purpose in any case of introducing the inconsistent and contradictory statements of the witness…