Manning v. United States

• Decision Date: 09 September 1954
• Docket Number: No. 4866.,4866.
• Citation: 215 F.2d 945
• Parties: Eldred Clifton MANNING, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

215 F.2d 945 (1954)

Eldred Clifton MANNING, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 4866.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

September 9, 1954.

Robert W. Domme and Michael A. Barbara, Topeka, Kan., for appellant.

William C. Farmer, Wichita, for appellee.

Before PHILLIPS and HUXMAN, Circuit Judges, and RITTER, District Judge.

RITTER, District Judge.

The appellant was convicted and sentenced to a term in the penitentiary in the District Court of the United States for the District of Kansas. This appeal is taken from the judgment of that Court. The indictment was laid under the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act, 41 Stat. 324, 18 U.S.C.A. § 408,¹ commonly known as the "Dyer Act", and charged appellant with transporting a motor vehicle in interstate commerce from Ranger, Texas, to Garden City, Kansas, knowing it to have been stolen.

The appellant contends that it was error to convict him upon a confession uncorroborated by proof of the "corpus delicti". He makes the broad claim that to prove the "corpus delicti" the evidence must establish every essential element of the offense charged.

In all but a few American jurisdictions the courts have adopted a Rule of Law that the uncorroborated confession of the accused in a criminal case is not alone sufficient to support a conviction. In most jurisdictions, moreover, the corroborating evidence must establish the "corpus delicti". 7 Wigmore on Evidence (3d ed. 1940) Secs. 2070 and 2071, pages 393 to 400. The majority American view is probably due to Professor Greenleaf's suggestion in his work on evidence, Sec. 217, and to the great authority given his work by the American courts of his time.

Wigmore tells us that "the phrase `corpus delicti' has been the subject of much loose judicial comment, and an apparent sanction has often been given to an unjustifiably broad meaning". 7 Wigmore on Evidence (3d ed. 1940) Sec. 2072, page 401.

The use of Latin words, e.g. "corpus delicti", "res gestae" and the like, in the law of evidence, do not tend to throw much light upon the subject. Not infrequently one feels justified in suspecting that when a judge says evidence is admissible because it is part of the "res gestae", or says a confession is not admissible because the "corpus delicti" has not been proved, the judge has a hunch it should be admissible or inadmissible, as the case may be, and resorts to a foreign language he doesn't understand for a reason.

The term "corpus delicti" is not synonymous with the whole of the charge. If the government must prove the whole charge, in order to corroborate the confession, of what use is the confession? As Wigmore says, 7 Wigmore on Evidence (3d ed. 1940) Supplement 1953, Sec. 2072, page 402, this "would be absurd". And, of course, it is not the law.

If the term "corpus delicti" does not signify the whole of the charge, what then is the meaning of the phrase?

Wigmore tells us that analysis of any crime will show three elements: First, the fact of an injury or a loss, as, in homicide, a dead person; in arson, a house burned; in larceny, property missing. Secondly, the fact of somebody's criminality (in contrast, e.g. to accident) as the cause of the injury or loss. The proof of these two elements involves the proof of the commission of a crime by somebody. Thirdly, the fact of the connection of the accused with the crime — his identity as the criminal, or the guilty agent through whom the wrong has occurred. 7 Wigmore on Evidence (3d ed. 1940) Sec. 2072, page 401.

Most American courts take the view that the phrase "corpus delicti" includes both the first and second elements, but does not include the third. In this view of the matter the rule requires corroboration of the confession by proof of (1) the fact of an injury or loss, and of (2) the fact of somebody's criminality as the cause of the loss or injury.

The rule, adopted by almost all of the courts, does not require proof, independent of his confession, of the connection of the accused with the crime, his identity as the criminal or the guilty agent through whom the wrong has occurred. The authorities are collected in 7 Wigmore on Evidence (3d ed., 1940, Supplement 1953) Secs. 2070-2072, pp. 393-403; and a note in 127 A.L.R. 1130, to Forte v. U. S., 1937, 68 App.D.C. 111, 94 F.2d 236, 127 A.L.R. 1120; U. S. v. Washington, D.C.1946, 69 F.Supp. 143.

In the case before us the grand jury charged an offense under 18 U.S.C. § 408 which provides: "Whoever shall transport or cause to be transported in interstate or foreign commerce a motor vehicle, knowing the same to have been stolen, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $5000, or by imprisonment of not more than five years, or both."

Analysis of the offense here charged, and of the rule of corroboration laid down by the majority of American courts concerning proof of the "corpus delicti" indicates that the evidence must show: First, that the motor vehicle was stolen; secondly, that it was transported in interstate commerce; thirdly, by someone who knew it was stolen.

The rule, by the great weight of authority, does not require proof, independent of the confession, of the connection of the accused with the crime, or of his identity as the criminal. It would seem, therefore, that as a part of the corpus delicti, the government need not corroborate his confession by proof that the defendant committed the crime and drove the car across a state line "knowing the same to have been stolen".

The interesting question in this case now appears. Is the knowledge of the defendant a part of the "corpus delicti" in a Dyer Act case? If it is, we are confronted with something of a dilemma, for, whichever way we decide, the decision runs counter to a line of authority recognized as the view of nearly all American courts. You cannot prove the knowledge of the defendant while transporting the car across the state line without also proving his connection with the crime, and his identity as the criminal. Evidence of both, of necessity, is commingled. And by the great weight of authority evidence of his identity as the criminal and his connection with the crime is not a part of the "corpus delicti". On the other hand, also by the great weight of authority, the act causing the wrong or loss must be a criminal act, and under the Dyer Act it is not a criminal act unless the interstate transportation was with knowledge that the car had been stolen. So, it would seem, whichever view we take, we must run counter to the majority view as to the content of the term "corpus delicti".

But, this is not necessarily so. The view we reach is consistent with both lines of authority, and, indeed, is supported by them. That view is that the government need not prove as a part of the "corpus delicti" for purposes of corroboration that the defendant had knowledge that the car was stolen. It is enough if the government proves that someone who transported it knew it was stolen. And this may be shown by the fair and reasonable inferences to be drawn from all of the facts and circumstances in evidence in the case.

We believe this view is amply supported by the following reasons:

1. To hold otherwise would be to hold that proof of the "corpus delicti" must show or tend to show that the defendant committed the crime. If this were true the term "corpus delicti" would be synonymous with the charge and the whole of it. The result would be that the government would be required to prove the whole charge, independently of the confession in order to corroborate it. This is contrary to practically all of the authorities, and surely cannot be true.

2. This would be an extension of the rule of law requiring corroboration, and an increase in the content of the concept signified by the term "corpus delicti".

3. The policy of the general rule requiring proof of the "corpus delicti" is itself questionable. It never became established generally in the English courts, and Wigmore says that "so far as it can be supposed to obtain at all today in the English and Irish courts, it is apparently restricted to the case of homicide". Vol. 7, 3d ed., p. 394.

4. There is high authority against the general rule. Judge Learned Hand, in Daeche v. United States, 2 Cir., 250 F. 566, 571, expressed his personal agreement with the views expressed by Wigmore and his own as being opposed to a rule of law requiring corroboration of a confession necessary to conviction. The fact that he felt obliged to follow what he referred to as "a very general concordance of judicial opinion in the United States" does not detract from the weight of his personal opinion. That opinion, to say the least, is of as great weight as that of Greenleaf whose views in all probability moved the American courts originally to lay the foundation of the structure of authority by which we all now feel bound. Wigmore, page 396. This view has the support also of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Com. v. Killion, 194 Mass. 153, 80 N.E. 222.

5. Moreover, the problem confronting a trial judge who must instruct a jury of lay folks would be an impossible one, not to mention the consternation of the members of the jury who must apply the rule to a complex mass of evidence. See Wigmore, Sec. 2072, p. 402. How can a trial judge expect the jury to understand a charge that evidence of the "corpus delicti" need not show or tend to show that the defendant committed the crime, but must show that the defendant knew the car he was transporting in interstate commerce was stolen?

6. Such a rule would be capable of abuse and an obstruction to the course of justice. It would provide another verbal formula in which to entrap the trial judge into an error of words in his charge to the jury. See Wigmore, supra.

7. Assume there is a danger of false or coerced confession of guilt which the rule is supposed to guard against; the jury can be warned as well by counsel, or by the judge in his charge on the...