Johnson v. State

Decision Date22 December 1904
Citation37 So. 937,142 Ala. 1
PartiesJOHNSON v. STATE.
CourtAlabama Supreme Court

Appeal from Criminal Court, Jefferson County; D. A. Greene, Judge.

W. E Johnson was convicted of obtaining money under false pretenses, and appeals. Reversed.

The first count of the indictment was in words and figures as follows: "The grand jury of said county charge that before the finding of this indictment W. E. Johnson, whose name is to the grand jury otherwise unknown, did falsely pretend to Louis E. Brinkmeyer, with the intent to defraud that he had and owned one-third interest in a United States Government certificate for the sum of fifty eight hundred dollars, which had been given for work done in Mississippi for the United States Government, and by means of such false pretense obtained from the said Louis C. Brinkmeyer twenty-five dollars in lawful money of the United States of America." To this count of the indictment, the defendant demurred upon the following grounds: "(1) Said count fails to aver or show that defendant obtained money or property from any one by means of his said false pretenses. (2) Said count fails to aver or show that defendant obtained any money or property from W. E. Brinkmeyer, or that said W E. Brinkmeyer was injured or suffered by reason of said false pretenses." This demurrer was overruled.

McCLELLAN C.J.

The court did not err in overruling the demurrer to the first count of the indictment. It is in the Code form. Code 1896, § 4923, form 48; Cr. Code 1896, p. 330. The case being tried on the first count, a primal ingredient of the offense was the falsity of the alleged representations whereby defendant obtained money from Brinkmeyer. Without proof of such falsity, the corpus delicti was not shown. The only evidence offered to show that the representations were false was the confession of the defendant to that effect. In the absence of independent evidence in that connection this confession was not admissible, and should have been excluded on defendant's objection, based upon the ground that the corpus delicti had not been proved; and the general charge should have been given for the defendant. "A confession not corroborated by independent evidence of the corpus delicti is not sufficient to support a conviction of felony." Matthews v. State, 55 Ala. 187; Smith v. State, 133 Ala. 145, 31 So. 806, 91 Am. St Rep. 21; Stringer v. State, 135 Ala. 60, 33 So. 685

Reversed and...

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11 cases
  • State v. Urie
    • United States
    • Idaho Supreme Court
    • 8 Febrero 1968
    ...an extrajudicial confession is the only proof of the falsity of the representation, the conviction can not be sustained. Johnson v. State, 142 Ala. 1, 37 So. 937 (1904); People v. Simonsen, 107 Cal. 345, 40 P. 440 (1895); Button v. State, 207 Miss. 582, 42 So.2d 773 (1949); Owen v. State, 1......
  • State v. Charity
    • United States
    • Missouri Court of Appeals
    • 13 Septiembre 1979
    ...773 (1949); Owen v. State, 159 Miss. 588, 132 So. 753 (1931); Gulotta v. United States, 113 F.2d 683 (8th Cir. 1940); Johnson v. State, 142 Ala. 1, 37 So. 937 (1904); People v. Simonsen, 107 Cal. 345, 40 P. 440 (1895); People v. Ward, 145 Cal. 736, 79 P. 448 (1905); State v. Penny, 70 Iowa ......
  • Hines v. State, 1 Div. 556
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • 25 Marzo 1954
    ...16 So.2d 183. Also the corpus delicti must be established before evidence of any confession of the defendant is admissible. Johnson v. State, 142 Ala. 1, 37 So. 937. These governing rules were complied with in the present case. As has been previously pointed out by this court in many cases,......
  • Dennis v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Appeals
    • 15 Mayo 1917
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