Robinson v. State, 42712

• Decision Date: 28 October 1963
• Docket Number: No. 42712,42712
• Parties: Jerrell Wayne ROBINSON v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 49

157 So.2d 49

247 Miss. 609

Jerrell Wayne ROBINSON v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 42712.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Oct. 28, 1963.

J. W. Kellum, Sumner, for appellant.

Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., by G. Garland Lyell, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

McELROY, Justice.

The appellant was jointly indicated with Wayne J. Lanham, but tried separately and convicted of the crime of burglary. From a sentence of five years in the penitentiary, he appeals and assigns as error the introduction of a confession to a policeman, claiming said confession was involuntarily given, and also assigns as error the introduction of evidence by said policeman showing that his co-indictee was in the custody of the federal authorities.

While in the custody of the officers at the jail in Clarksdale, a policeman of the city was interrogating appellant about the alleged crime of which appellant, at first, denied any guilt, but after questioning him for approximately an hour, according to the policeman's testimony, he changed his story and admitted his guilt; however, such was done after the policeman had made the statement to appellant that he was not telling the truth about the matter, because the other two defendants had told their story and confessed.

The town marshal stated in part that 'he was pretty sure that he had talked to the defendant in the presence of others. He was picked up around the 8th or 9th for interrogation. It was quite a while ago--I don't remember the exact time--strictly on a guess I would say it was in the afternoon. We talked to him in the back in what is called the Sheriff's office, in the presence of Mr. Weeks and Mr. Joe Davis. If I'm not mistaken, there were a couple more, it might have been Mr. Farris or the Sheriff. * * * Well, we told Jerrell (Robinson) that we had talked to the other two boys, and they had come clean, and that we wanted at this time to give him an opportunity to do the same thing. We explained to him that they had committed a crime, and that the only right thing to do was to clear themselves, or 'come clean', and if you committed the crime, the best thing to do is come square with the State, or the City, whoever the crime was against; that it doesn't do any good to try to hide a crime if you committed it. You know you did wrong and you have been caught. * * * We gave him a chance to tell his story, and he told us about going and getting a coke. I can't say that I said that, exactly, but if I followed my regular routine, I said it--'you are not telling us the whole story about the thing, now; the other members in your so-called gang have confessed to the whole story, why don't you tell the truth? If you don't want to tell the story, then that's all right. The other members have told the story and the thing to do is to square yourself, not only with us but with the Man Upstairs, and if you don't do that, you are not trying to help yourself.' * * * So we went back into the routine about 'helping yourself and getting the thing cleared up once and for all and forget about it. If you tell the truth, you can forget it, and not say 'I don't know anything about it' and have it on your conscience the rest of your life." He said they were questioned about thirty minutes or an hour, at the most.

The question before the...