Daniel Youth vs The King - 1944 Supreme(SC) 35

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1944 Supreme(SC) 35

Privy Council At Jamaica
Sir Madhavan Nair, Goddard , Simonds , Porter, Justice Lords Russell of Killowen, JJ.
Daniel Youth -Appellant
Versus
The King -Resopndent
Privy Council Appeal No. 12 of 1944
Decided On : 13-11-1944

Important Points

Statutory marital privilege and consent requirements for spousal testimony apply only to evidence given in court. Out-of-court statements by a spouse are admissible against them, even in joint trials, provided the jury is warned not to use such evidence against the other spouse.

Subject

Criminal Law - Evidence

Act Referred

Evidence Ordinance 3 of 1901 of the Revised Laws of the Turks and Caicos Islands, 1909: S.99, S.102

Headnote

(A) Evidence Ordinance 3 of 1901 - Sections 99 and 102 - Admissibility of statements made by a co-accused spouse - Joint trials - Marital privilege - Statutory provisions prohibiting the calling of a spouse as a witness without consent and protecting marital communications apply specifically to evidence given in the witness box and do not extend to statements made outside of court to police or third parties - Such statements are admissible against the spouse who made them, even in a joint trial, provided the presiding judge warns the jury that the evidence must not be used to strengthen the case against or lead to the conviction of the co-accused spouse against whom it is not admissible.

(B) Joint Trials - Discretion of the presiding judge - Severance of trials - The decision to conduct joint or separate trials rests within the judicial discretion of the presiding judge; in the absence of an application to sever the trials, the court will not interfere with the decision to try co-accused persons together.

Facts of the case:
A husband and wife were jointly charged and convicted of murder. The evidence against the husband included circumstantial evidence and a statement made by the wife to the police. In this statement, the wife detailed a confession made by the husband and provided information leading to the discovery of blood-stained weapons. The husband appealed his conviction on the grounds that the wife's statement was inadmissible against him and that its admission rendered the trial unfair, regardless of the jury's warnings.

Findings of Court:
The court found that the statement was admissible for and against the wife. The trial judge had provided the jury with the necessary warnings that the statement was not evidence against the husband and must not be considered in determining his guilt. The statutory protections regarding spousal testimony and marital communications were held to apply only to witnesses called in court, not to out-of-court statements.

Issues: Whether a statement made by a co-accused spouse to the police is inadmissible against the other spouse under statutory provisions requiring consent for spousal testimony and protecting marital communications.

Ratio Decidendi: The court ruled that sections of the Evidence Ordinance governing the calling of spouses as witnesses and the disclosure of marital communications deal exclusively with evidence given in the witness box. These provisions do not prevent the police from receiving statements from a suspect spouse, nor do they preclude the use of such statements against the spouse who made them. In joint trials, such evidence is admissible against the maker, and the potential prejudice to the co-accused is mitigated by judicial warnings to the jury.

Result: Appeal dismissed.

Legal Category Hierarchy

Advocates Appeared:
Burchells, Attlee, Druces , King, Preedy, Kenelm, Harris Walker, G.R. Blanco White

Lord Porter.-

Their Lordships have already indicated that they would humbly advise His Majesty that this appeal should be dismissed and that they would give their reasons for tendering such advice in due course. Those reasons are set out below. The appellant and his wife Amelia Youth were jointly charged on indictment in the Supreme Court of Turks and Caicos Islands before His Honour S. T. B. Sanguinetti and a jury of twelve with the murder of one Poland Smith in the Parish of Saint George at the Bight of Blue Hills. Both pleaded not guilty but were convicted and sentenced to death: the wife's sentence however was afterwards commuted to penal servitude for life. The husband alone appealed first to the Supreme Court of Judicature of Jamaica and subsequently by special leave to His Majesty in Council. The appellant lived in a small settlement on Caicos Island called Thomas Stubbs Settlement which appears to have consisted of only three houses: one inhabited by the appellant and his wife, the next by the deceased man, his wife and family, and the third by the dead man's mother-in-law. There was ample evidence of bad blood between the appellant and the deceased and indeed that the appellant threatened to get him out of the Settlement and had been heard to say with reference to him "Something is going to happen serious." Some miles to the west of this Settlement lies another and larger settlement known as Bight Settlement, a road or path joins the two Settlements, and from this road a track leads to the seashore which is about half to two-thirds of a mile distant. The dead man was accustomed to pay a visit each Sunday afternoon to friends at the Bight Settlement and on Sunday, 6th July 1942, as usual he left his house about 5 o'clock and visited one James Pratt, who lived two or three miles away. He arrived about 6 P. M., left about 10 P.m , but never reached his home. On Tuesday, 7th July 1942, his dead body was found floating in the sea some distance to the west of the Bight Settlement. Death apparently was not due to drowning but to a combination of injuries which had been inflicted upon him: they consisted of three scalp wounds towards the back of the head, a jagged wound below the left car and a cut through the right side of the lower jaw penetrating through the inferior maxilla. Though the last mentioned wound would cause profuse bleeding, the blood would not, necessarily be on the assailant. Later the same day at a spot lying just off the track mentioned above a sandy clearing was found, bloodstained and trampled and marked by foot-prints. The clearing was about one mile from Thomas Stubbs Settlement and 21 chains, from the shore.

The bloodstains continued for about 200 yards to the beach and on the beach were found two sets of footprints as if two persons walked face to face sideways to the sea. The two sets were about two feet apart heavily indented, as if a weight was being carried and between them at one spot was a collection of blood. One set was larger than the other. According to the evidence the appellant and his wife left home a long time after the dead man, walking in the direction which he had taken towards the Bight Settlement. At sun-rise the following morning Amelia Youth was seen coming from the direction in which she and her husband had gone the previous evening and shortly afterwards the appellant came from the same direction towards his house. That same morning a farmer living at Bight Settlement saw two persons coming eastwards along the beach about 4 A. M. After they saw him the two turned back in the direction of Stubbs Settlement, but he was unable to identify who they were. On the same day there was found on the floor of the Youth's house a machete without a handle which could have caused the wound on the right-hand side of the dead man's face, but no blood was in fact found on it. The two accused were seen by the police about 3 P. M. on 7th July and the appellant then had a bruise over his left cheek, s