State v. Landers
Decision Date | 07 January 1908 |
Citation | 114 N.W. 717,21 S.D. 606 |
Parties | STATE v. LANDERS. |
Court | South Dakota Supreme Court |
Error to Circuit Court, Davison County.
H. R Landers was convicted of murder, and he brings error. Affirmed.
Simons & Bradford, for plaintiff in error.
S. W Clark, Atty. Gen., and T. J. Spangler, State's Atty., for the State.
Plaintiff in error is now serving a life sentence in the penitentiary at Sioux Falls for the murder of John Doe, whose true name is unknown, and the admission in evidence of his sworn confession tending to connect him with the commission of that crime as an aider and abettor, and therefore punishable under our statute as a principal, is the first point urged for a reversal.
According to his confession and corroborating testimony, the offense was committed by means of gunshot wound inflicted on the 16th day of July, 1906, in the railway yards at the city of Mitchell, where the dead body of the victim was soon afterward discovered by various persons, and on the following day the accused and one Herman Edward Vey were apprehended at the neighboring village of Fulton by a local peace officer who immediately turned them over to the sheriff of Davison county. On their return to Mitchell in the custody of this officer Vey appears to have made a voluntary declaration of his guilty participation in the crime, but implicated the accused as the person who fired the fatal shot. The circumstances connected with the confession here under consideration are shown by the following testimony of Mr Spangler, adduced as a foundation for its introduction in evidence on behalf of the prosecution: As there can be no fixed rule by which to determine whether a confession is voluntary or involuntary, the question of its competency as evidence against the accused must be decided upon the facts peculiar to the case and the circumstances under which it was made. The confession of a person in custody to one having legal authority to prosecute or punish him should be rejected when it appears that the same resulted from anything calculated to induce the fabrication of a false statement concerning his participation in a crime. While the competency of the confession before us is too perceptible to justify the citation of supporting authority, and we are not called upon here to sanction the doctrine of the following cases, we quote therefrom without comment as follows: State v. Staley, 14 Minn. 105 (Gil. 75). State v. Squires, 48 N.H. 364. State v. Kornstett, 62 Kan. 221, 61 P. 805. "The mere fact that two officers who had arrested a boy 13 or 14 years old without a warrant upon suspicion of having committed a crime, after searching him, stripping him of his clothing, and, putting him into a cold cell at the police station, took him from the cell late at night and questioned him for two hours, without warning him of his right not to answer, or offering him opportunity to consult friends or counsel, does not render his confession in the conversation inadmissible on his trial for the crime." Commonwealth v. Cuffee, 108 Mass. 285. "A prisoner's confession to the officer arresting him or holding him in custody will not be rejected merely because it was made in answer to a question which assumed his guilt." State v. Berry, 50 La. Ann. 1309, 24 So. 329. "Where the circumstances proved show a confession of guilt was freely and voluntarily made, it should be admitted in evidence, although there may be evidence of threats or promises made at the time the confession was obtained." Bartley v. State, 156 Ill. 234, 40 N.E. 831. "A confession procured by artifice is not for that reason inadmissible, unless the artifice used was calculated to produce an untrue confession." State v. Fredericks and Reed, 85 Mo. 145. "A confession which is affirmatively shown to have been made voluntarily, though made while the defendant was under arrest, and in response to questions propounded by the officer having him in custody, is admissible evidence." Spicer v. State, 69 Ala. 159. As being most...
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