State v. Glynden

• Decision Date: 14 June 1879
• Citation: 51 Iowa 463,1 N.W. 750
• Parties: THE STATE OF IOWA, APPELLEE, v. WILLIAM P. GLYNDEN, APPELLANT.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

51 Iowa 463

1 N.W. 750

THE STATE OF IOWA, APPELLEE,

v.WILLIAM P. GLYNDEN, APPELLANT.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Filed June 14, 1879.

Appeal from Hardin district court.

Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree, for the killing of Wipka Martin, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. He appeals to this court. The facts of the case involved in the question ruled in the case appear in the opinion.Brown & Binford, for appellant.

J. F. McJunkin, Attorney General, for the State.

BECK, C. J.

––I. Wipka Martin, a girl of fourteen years of age, was, on the eighth day of September, 1877, found dead in a corn–field in the neighborhood of her home, in Grundy County. It was evident that her death was caused by violence, perpetrated in a brutal attempt to ravish her. She was well grown and healthy, and had resisted the assault with all her strength. There was evidence at the place where it occurred of a violent struggle, showing the spirit and determination with which she resisted her destroyer. Death was caused by strangulation, produced by the hands of the more than brutal being that perpetrated the revolting crime. Her body was borne by the person committing the dreadful crime a short distance into a corn–field, after life was extinct. The girl had been sent from home the afternoon of her murder to a blacksmith–shop, with a “plow–lay.” She was seen on the road to the shop, at a point about thirty–six rods from the place where the crime was committed, in company with defendant, or, using, probably, a more accurate expression, the two were seen walking near each other. The girl was not seen alive by any one afterwards. The defendant admitted that he was with or near to the deceased at or about the place and time indicated by the witness who testified that he had seen them together, and that he had asked her for directions to the house of a resident in the neighborhood to which he was going. He also admitted that he passed through a corn–field from the place he met the girl to the house, and pointed out his foot–prints. Other admissions were shown, tending to establish the fact of his presence near the place of the crime at the time testified to by the witness who had seen him and the girl together. The court, as applicable to the testimony disclosing these admissions and statements of the defendant, gave the following instructions:

“9. Free and voluntary confession of guilt by the party accused, are, by the law, presumed to be true, and when distinctly heard and correctly understood, and fully and accurately remembered, and clearly proven, they are deserving of the highest credit as evidence, and in any particular case on trial the degree of credit and force to be given to them depend upon the degree of distinctness with which they are heard, understood and remembered. But confessions extorted from the defendant through the torture of fear or flattery of hope, and having about them none of the safeguards or assurances of truth, are entitled to no weight or credit. And in this case, should you find the defendant has made statements or confessions, either of his guilt or of facts tending to show his guilt, you will, in the light of the above rules of law, and of all the facts and circumstances discovered by the evidence, carefully examine such statements and confessions, and if you find them to have been...