wife can't testify against her husband??

[joko]

I have just been watching porridge and fletcher says to godber that a wife can't testify against her husband??

is this true, or rather was it true in the 70s?

i can't see how that makes sense, but thats what he said
(he was saying that there was no point in digging the wife up and bringing her back to life to testify against her husband because wives can't do that)

thanks

[dzug]

It was certainly true at one time and is still true in some US states. Whether it still applies in the UK I don't know.

It originated in Common Law whereby a husband and wife were regarded as one person. You cannot (be forced to) testify againbst yourself.

[chakka35]

A wife can certainly testify against her husband when she is a victim of his behaviour. Otherwise no-one could ever be convicted of wife-beating unless a third party was present at the offence.

[stoo_pid]

Dunno if this was always the case but a wife can give evidence against her husband

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4132374.stm

[joko]

i realise you can now, i'm just shocked that there was ever a time when she couldn't especially as near as the 70s.

did this work the other way round? could a man testify against his wife?

in the past women were considered to 'belong' to their husbands, even being addressed as "mrs john smith", so it was probably considered that whatever a man did to a woman was allowed as ' he owned her'

typical!

[Whickerman]

It's not that she couldn't - she just couldn't be forced to.

[rojash]

As Whickerman says, it's not that she can't testify, it's that she can't be compelled to testify.

[joko]

that may be the case now, but in context, he was saying that there was no point in calling on the wonders of medical science and bringing her back to life to testify against her murderer because women aren't allowed to testify against their husband, so no point.

i know he was joking about bringing her back to life but he was saying that even though he had killed her she couldn't tell the court he'd done it

surely she wouldn't need to be forced, she'd want to tell everyone what he'd done to her - so i don't understand how that is the same thing?

[netibiza]

A wife cannot be forced to testify against her husband, but if she wants to then she may.