Page:1887 Compiled Laws of Dakota Territory.pdf/1228

§§ 7549-7550 he may appoint a short hand reporter. The deposition or testimony of the witness must be authenticated in the following form:

1. It must state the name of the witness, his place of residence and his business or profession.

2. It must contain the questions put to the witness and his answer thereto, each answer being distinctly read to him as it is taken down, and being corrected or added to until it conforms to what he declares is the truth; except in cases where the testimony is taken down in short hand, the answer or answers of the witness need not be read to him.

3. If a question be objected to on either side and overruled, or the witness declines answering it, that fact with the ground on which the question was overruled, or the answer declined, must be stated.

4. The deposition must be signed by the witness, or if he refuses to sign it his reason for refusing must be stated in writing as he gives it; except in cases where the deposition is taken down in short hand, it must not be signed by the witness.

5. It must be signed and certified by the magistrate when reduced to writing by him or under his direction, and when taken down in short hand the manuscript of the reporter, appointed as aforesaid, when written out in long hand writing, and certified as being a correct statement of such testimony and proceedings in the case, shall be prima facie a correct statement of such testimony and proceedings. The reporter shall within five days after the close of such examination transcribe into long hand writing his said short hand notes, and certify and deliver the same to the magistrate who shall also certify the same and transmit such testimony and proceedings, carefully sealed up, to the clerk of the court in which the action is pending or may come for trial.

§ 7549. The deposition or certified copy thereof may be read in evidence by either party on the trial upon its appearing that the witness is unable to attend by reason of his death, insanity, sickness, or infirmity, or of his continued absence from the territory Upon reading the depositions in evidence the same objections may be taken to a question or answer contained therein as if the witness had been examined orally in court.

§ 7550. When a material witness for a defendant under a deposition may criminal charge, is a prisoner in a territorial prison or in a county jail of a county other than that in which the defendant is to be tried, his deposition may be taken on behalf of the defendant in the manner provided for in the case of a witness who is sick; and the foregoing provisions of this article, so far as they are applicable, govern in the application for, and in the taking and use of such depositions; such deposition may be taken before any magistrate or notary public of the county in which the jail or prison is situated; or in case the witness is confined in a territorial prison, and the defendant is unable to pay for taking the deposition, before the warden or clerk of the board of directors of the prison, whose duty it shall be to act without compensation. Every officer before whom testimony shall be taken by virtue hereof, shall have authority to administer, and shall administer an oath to the witness, that his testimony shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.