Chapter III. Prosecutors, Defendants, and Witnesses

THERE are other persons connected with the administration of justice besides judges and lawyers, and they have special moral obligations of their own. A word must be said about the moral duties of prosecutors, defendants, and witnesses. By canon law the accusation of delinquents in an ecclesiastical criminal trial is reserved to the Promotor of Justice, but as a general rule anyone who has full use of his senses may prosecute according to English law. Nobody should undertake a prosecution when greater evil than good would follow from it, or when there is not moral certainty as to the guilt of the accused. Otherwise it may be done for the sake of the public good, and there may be an obligation to do it, as when one’s office compels one to undertake the task, or the defence of the innocent or the public good require it, or a precept of obedience command it. Thus by ecclesiastical law heretics and priests guilty of solicitation in the sacred tribunal are to be denounced to the Ordinary.

The defendant in a criminal trial is not himself subjected to examination according to English law, unless he offers himself voluntarily to give evidence, and then he may be examined like a witness. In canon law the accused is examined, and the question arises whether he is bound to tell the truth. According to Canon 1743: “ The parties are bound to answer the judge when he interrogates them legitimately, and to tell the truth unless there is question of a crime committed by themselves.”

The defendant may in self-defence make known the secret crime of a witness against him, if it really conduces to his defence; but of course he may never impute false crimes to anybody. A criminal may not defend himself against lawful arrest, for that would be to resist lawful authority, but he is not compelled to deliver himself up to justice, and it is not a sin to escape from justice if he can do so without violence, The law prescribes that he shall be kept in durance, not that he shall voluntarily remain in custody. A criminal lawfully condemned to death is not obliged to save his life by escape or other means if he can do so; he should submit to the execution of the sentence passed upon him, and may do so meritoriously.

Charity or obedience may impose an obligation to give evidence in a court of justice. If serious harm can be prevented by offering one’s self as a witness, there will as a rule be an obligation to do so, and obedience imposes the obligation when one is summoned by lawful authority.

A witness is bound by his oath and by obedience due to lawful authority to tell the truth in answer to the questions lawfully put to him. How far he is privileged when examined concerning what he knows under secret, we saw when treating of the Eighth Commandment of the Decalogue. He is not bound to incriminate himself, nor, of course, may the seal of confession ever be broken (cf. Can. 1755).

The canon law laid it down that two witnesses of unsuspected character were necessary and sufficient evidence of any fact alleged in a court of justice. A solitary witness was not usually sufficient or admissible evidence of a crime, and in keeping with this the theologians decided that a solitary witness should not declare what he knew of a crime, inasmuch as he was not lawfully interrogated. English law, however, with most modern systems, admits one witness, if credible, as sufficient evidence of a fact, and so as a rule there will be an obligation on such a one of answering according to his knowledge when questioned lawfully in a court of justice (cf. Can. 1791).