Shaffer v. State

Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant was indicted, tried and convicted of the crime of perjury, in the Circuit Court for Allegany County, The questions presented on the appeal arise upon a demurrer to the indictment which was overruled by the Court. The assignment of errors as set forth in the indictment are: First, that the allegation in the indictment that in the trial of Martha Poole, it became material to enquire as to her general reputation for chastity, she being an inmate of said alleged bawdy house, was not a material allegation, because she being the defendant in said case and on trial in a criminal prosecution, it was not competent to submit evidence to the jury of her bad reputation until she undertook to offer evidence of her good character, and that the State’s, case could offer no evidence of her bad character in that trial, notwithstanding she was an inmate of said bawdy house, unless she first offered evidence of her good character. Second, that the allegation in the indictment that in the trial of the said Martha Poole, it became material to enquire into the reputation of the house alleged to be a bawdy house, was a defective allegation because it was not competent under the statutes of Maryland admitting evidence of reputation of the house in such cases for the State to show the reputation of the house unless the State undertook to show the general reputation of the house. ¹²⁶ Now it appears from an examination of the indictment, that it distinctly alleges, that then, upon the trial of said issue, to-wit, the charge of keeping and maintaining a certain common and ill-governed and disorderly house by the said Martha Poole, it became and was a material, competent and proper matter of inquiry in the same, whether the reputation of the said house located on Frederick street, in the city of Cumberland, Allegany County, aforesaid, kept and maintained by the said Martha Poole, was good or bad at the time alleged in the indictment aforesaid, to-wit, on or before the third day of October, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-six, and whether on or before the said third day of October, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-six, the reputation of said Martha Poole, defendant, inmate of said house, for chastity, was good or