Anderson v. United States

• Decision Date: 01 March 1943
• Docket Number: No. 10,10
• Citation: 63 S.Ct. 599,87 L.Ed. 829,318 U.S. 350
• Parties: ANDERSON et al. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

318 U.S. 350

63 S.Ct. 599

87 L.Ed. 829

ANDERSON et al.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 10.

Argued Oct. 21, 22, 1942.

Decided March 1, 1943.

Mr. Daniel William Leider of New York City, for petitioners.

Mr. Wendell Berge, Asst. Atty. Gen., of Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

The petitioners were convicted in the District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee of conspiring to damage property owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority, a corporation in which the United States is a stockholder, in violation of §§ 35(C) and 37 of the Criminal Code as amended, 18 U.S.C. §§ 82, 88, 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 82, 88. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the convictions, 124 F.2d 58, and we brought the case here because it presented serious questions in the administration of federal criminal justice, 316 U.S. 651, 62 S.Ct. 941, 86 L.Ed. 1732. The questions are similar to those decided this day in No. 25, McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 63 S.Ct. 608, 87 L.Ed. —-. The two cases were argued at the same time and, as will appear from a short summary of a long record, are governed by the same considerations.¹

In July 1939, the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers struck against the Tennessee Copper Company's mines at Copperhill, Polk County, Tennessee. The strike was followed by a shutdown, but the mines were reopened in August after the sheriff brought in a number of special deputies who were in the company's pay. It was one of those obdurate mining strikes, and it continued into April of 1940, when the violence which gave rise to this prosecution occurred. On April 1st the company's operations were interrupted by the dynamiting of two power lines, owned by the TVA, from which the company obtained the power necessary for its activities. On April 14th two steel towers were dynamited. Two days later two special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived in Copperhill to investigate the explosions. On April 24th two more power lines were blown down.

Thereupon, on the same day, the sheriff on his own initiative began to take into custody strikers, including the eight petitioners, whom he suspected of participation in the dynamiting. These arrests were made without warrant. With commendable candor in regard to this and other misconduct of officers of the law, the Government does not defend the legality of the arrests.² The men were not taken before any magistrate or other committing officer, as required by Tennessee law. Michie's Code (1938) § 11515. Instead they were taken to the company-owned Y.M.C.A. building in Copperhill, which was being used by the sheriff and his special deputies as their headquarters. On April 24th and 25th six more special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived in Copperhill to assist in the investigation.

While the petitioners, with at least thirteen others, were thus held in custody at the Y.M.C.A. by the state officers, they were questioned by the federal agents intermittetly over a period of six days during which they saw neither friends, relatives, nor counsel. Incriminating statements from six of the petitioners were the fruit of this interrogation. To determine whether these statements were properly admitted in evidence, it is necessary to particularize the circumstances under which each confession was made.

Simonds. Simonds was arrested by two deputies on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 24th, and taken directly to the Y.M.C.A. After spending the night at the county jail, he was questioned by one of the federal agents for about an hour Thursday morning at the Y.M.C.A. The questioning was resumed at two o'clock in the afternoon by three agents who talked with him for about two hours; at seven o'clock that evening he was again questioned by two agents for another two hours. On Friday morning he was questioned for about an hour. And on Saturday he was questioned at three different periods throughout the afternoon and evening, each period lasting about half an hour. He was again questioned on Sunday afternoon for about an hour by two agents, one of whom described what occurred then as follows: 'We went over the entire case with him, and pointed out the discrepancies in his story and the information we had developed on investigation, which knocked down his alibi, and out of a clear sky he said 'well, I want to tell you I am guilty." One of the agents thereupon took Simonds' written statement.

Hubbard. Hubbard was arrested by two deputies on Wednesday evening, April 24th, and taken to the Y.M.C.A. He, too, spent the night in the county jail. He was questioned by four agents at the Y.M.C.A. on Thursday afternoon for about two hours. Two of the agents questioned him again that evening for about two hours. At two o'clock Friday afternoon he was questioned for about forty-five minutes; at five o'clock he was questioned for another hour and a half. At seven-thirty Friday evening two agents questioned him for two more hours. He was questioned intermittently all day Saturday. One agent questioned him for periods of fifteen minutes two or three times during the morning and afternoon. Another questioned him for half an hour in the morning. A third agent talked with him for another two hours sometime during the day. And he was questioned again for about twenty minutes at six o'clock in the evening. He was not questioned on Sunday, but he was present during the questioning of Simonds by the federal officers that morning. After hearing Simonds admit his guilt, Hubbard also confessed.

Woodward. Woodward was also arrested on Wednesday afternoon, April 24th, by two deputies who took him first to the Y.M.C.A. and then to the county jail. He was questioned by four federal officers for about two hours Thursday afternoon, and questioned again for another two hours that night. The officers questioned him for about fifteen minutes on Saturday. On Sunday he was brought into the room where Simonds and Hubbard were, and upon being confronted with their confessions, also confessed. On Monday the officers spent about five hours, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. and from about 3:30 until 7 or 7:30 p.m., questioning him in order to reduce his confession to writing. The manner of Woodward in giving his statement was thus described by the agent who questioned him: 'He had considerable difficulty in recalling the details, he said his mind was not exactly clear on all of it, it took a good while in order to get the details of it, of how it happened, everything in the chronological order of events, and he also complained on occasions that his mind was befuddled in making the statement, upon relating about what he had done, and that is the reason it took so long to do it. It took the morning and the greater part of the afternoon.'

Rhodes. Rhodes was arrested Sunday night, April 28...