| Summary: | A proceeding under the Bastardy Act. Lucinda Simpson, a pregnant single woman, swore before two magistrates that the father of the child she was carrying was the defendant Long, who was indicted to appear before the county court. At the proceedings Long's counsel moved for a dismissal on the grounds that Simpson was of African descent to the fourth degree and so, as a woman of colour under the law, was barred from testifying against a white man. The court was satisfied that Simpson was as described and quashed the proceedings. After the birth of the child, Long was indicted by the state under the same act and relied on the same inadmissibility of Simpson's evidence for the proceedings to be dismissed again. The state appealed to the Superior Court, which upheld the dismissal, and then to the Supreme Court, which did the same.
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