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Mattox v. United States | 156 U.S. 237 (1895)

In Mattox versus United States, the court examined the constitutional and evidentiary ramifications of the deaths of key witnesses in a murder trial.

In 1891, Clyde Mattox was tried in federal district court for the murder of John Mullen. Thomas Whitman and George Thornton were two of the government’s main witnesses. Whitman and Thornton were present at Mattox’s trial and were fully examined and cross-examined. Mattox was convicted, and he petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a writ of error. The Court reversed Mattox’s conviction and remanded for a new trial.

The jury in Mattox’s second trial couldn’t reach a verdict, and Mattox was tried a third time in December of 1893. By then, Whitman and Thornton were dead, and the government sought to introduce the court reporter’s notes of their testimony from the first trial. Mattox objected, arguing that allowing the notes into evidence would violate his constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him. The district court admitted the notes.

Mattox then sought to impeach Whitman’s testimony by introducing testimony from two other witnesses, James and Violet, who claimed Whitman had told them that his testimony at the first trial was false and that he’d been threatened into testifying against Mattox. The government argued that impeachment was improper because Whitman’s death meant that Mattox couldn’t lay a proper foundation by asking Whitman if he’d made the alleged statements to James and Violet, and the government couldn’t put Whitman on the witness stand to contradict James’s and Violet’s testimony. The district court refused to admit the impeachment evidence.

Mattox was convicted, and he again petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of error.

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