Witnesses.
SEC. 381. Witnesses. — The testimony of all witnesses, except such as has been taken in writing in the form of depositions as otherwise provided by law, shall be given on oath in open court orally, and each witness may be orally cross-examined by the adverse party or his counsel with sufficient fullness and freedom to test his accuracy and truthfulness and freedom from interest or bias, or the reverse, and to elicit all important facts bearing upon the issue. The courts shall be liberal in allowing cross-examinations, but shall have the power to restrict them so as to confine them to the purposes last above specified and to prevent irrelevant or insulting interrogatories.
Qualification of witness.
SEC. 382. Qualification of witness. — All persons, without exception, otherwise than as specified in the next section, who, having organs of sense, can perceive, and, perceiving, can make known their perceptions to others, may be witnesses. Neither the parties nor other persons, who have an interest in the event of an action or proceeding shall be excluded; nor shall those who have been convicted of crime, nor shall any person be excluded on account of his opinion on matters of religious belief. But in every case the credibility of the witness may be drawn in question by competent evidence, and the court in weighing the testimony of any witness shall make due allowance for the interest or credibility of the witness, as the facts disclosed may require.
Incompetency of witnesses.
SEC. 383. Incompetency of witnesses. — The following persons can not be witnesses:
1. Those who are of unsound mind at the time of their production for examination, to such degree as to be incapable of perceiving and making known their perceptions to others;
2. Children who appear to the court to be of such tender age and inferior capacity as to be incapable of receiving the just impressions of the facts respecting which they are examined, or of relating them truly;
3. A husband can not be examined for or against his wife without her consent; nor a wife for or against her husband without his consent; nor can either, during the marriage or afterwards, be, without the consent of the other, examined as to any communication made by one to the other during the marriage; but this exception does not apply to a civil action or proceeding by one against the other, or to a criminal action or proceeding for a crime committed by one against the other;
4. An attorney can not, without the consent of his client, be examined as to any communication made by the client to him or his advise given thereon in the course of professional employment; nor can an attorney's secretary, stenographer, or clerk be examined, without the consent of client and his employer, concerning any fact, the knowledge of which has been acquired in such capacity;
5. A clergyman or priest can not, without the consent of the person making the confession, be examined as to any confession made to him in his professional character in the course of discipline enjoined by the church to which he belongs;
6. A public officer can not be examined during his term of office or afterwards as to communications made to him in official confidence, when the court finds that the public interests would suffer by the disclosure;
7. Parties or assignors of parties to an action or proceeding, or persons in whose behalf an action or proceeding is prosecuted, against an executor or administrator or other representative of a deceased person, or against a person of unsound mind, upon a claim or demand against the estate of such deceased person or against such person of unsound mind, can not testify as to any matter of fact occurring before the death of such deceased person or before such person became of unsound mind.
