Sims v. State of Georgia, No. 251

• Court: United States Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: CLARK
• Citation: 17 L.Ed.2d 593,87 S.Ct. 639,385 U.S. 538
• Parties: Isaac SIMS, Jr., Petitioner, v. STATE OF GEORGIA
• Docket Number: No. 251
• Decision Date: 23 January 1967

385 U.S. 538 87 S.Ct. 639 17 L.Ed.2d 593 Isaac SIMS, Jr., Petitioner,

v.

STATE OF GEORGIA.

No. 251. Argued Dec. 6 and 7, 1966. Decided Jan. 23, 1967.

Jack Greenberg, New York City, for petitioner.

Dewey Hayes, Douglas, Ga., and E. Freeman Leverett, Atlanta, Ga., for respondent.

Mr. Justice CLARK delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner, a Negro, has been convicted of raping a white woman and has been given the death penalty. He raises five federal questions¹ for consideration by this

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Court, among which is that his Fourteenth Amendment rights to a fair trial were violated by the state trial judge's failure to determine the voluntariness of his alleged confession prior to its admission into evidence before the jury, as required by the rule in Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964). The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Jackson was not applicable and affirmed petitioner's conviction, Sims v. State, 221 Ga. 190, 144 S.E.2d 103. We granted certiorari limited to the five questions, 384 U.S. 998, 86 S.Ct. 1953, 16 L.Ed.2d 1013. We have determined that petitioner's case is controlled by Jackson, supra, and therefore we do not reach any of the other issues raised.

I.

The record indicates that on April 13, 1963, a 29-year-old white woman was driving home alone in her automobile when petitioner drove up behind her in his car,

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forced her off the road into a ditch, took the woman from her car into nearby woods and forcibly raped her. When he returned to his car, he could not start the engine so he left the scene on foot. Some four hours later he was apprehended by some Negro workers who had been alerted to be on the watch for him. He told these Negroes that he had attacked a white woman. They then turned petitioner over to their employer who delivered him to two state patrolmen. He was then taken to the office of a Doctor Jackson who had previously examined the victim. Petitioner's clothing was removed in order to test it for blood stains. Petitioner testified that while he was in Doctor Jackson's office he was knocked down, kicked over the right eye and pulled around the floor by his private parts. He was taken to a hospital owned by Doctor Jackson, which was adjacent to his office, where four stitches were taken in his forehead. Thereafter the patrolmen took petitioner to Waycross, Georgia, some 30 miles distant, where he was placed in the county jail. During that evening, he saw a deputy sheriff whom he had known for some 13 years and who was on duty on the same floor of the jail where petitioner was incarcerated. He agreed to make a statement and was taken to an interview room where, in the presence of the sheriff, the deputy sheriff and two police officers, he signed a written confession. Two days later he was arraigned.

Prior to trial petitioner filed a motion to suppress the confession as being the result of coercion. A hearing was held before the court out of the presence of the jury. The sheriff and the deputy testified to the circumstances surrounding the taking and signing of the confession. Petitioner testified as to the abuse he had received while in Doctor Jackson's office. He testified that he 'felt pretty rough for about two or three weeks

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(after the incident), more on my private than I did on my face' and that he 'was paining a right smart.' There was no contradictory testimony taken. The court denied the motion to suppress without opinion or findings and the confession was admitted into evidence at petitioner's trial.

At the trial, Doctor Jackson was a witness for the State. On cross-examination he denied that he had knocked petitioner down while the latter was in his office, or that he had kicked him in the forehead but made no mention of the other abuse about which petitioner testified. The doctor stated that petitioner was not abused in his presence but he refused to say whether the patrolmen present abused petitioner as he was not in the office at all times while the petitioner was there with the patrolmen. In this state of the record petitioner's testimony in this regard was left uncontradicted.

II.

There is no actual ruling or finding in the record showing that the trial judge determined the voluntariness of the confession. Although he admitted it into evidence, it appears that he was only following a long-standing state practice that the 'State having made out a prima facie case that the alleged confession was freely and voluntarily made, it was a question for the jury to determine on conflicting evidence whether the alleged confession was freely and voluntarily made.' Downs v. State, 208 Ga. 619, 621, 68 S.E.2d 568, 570. Defense counsel called the court's attention to the Jackson v. Denno ruling of...