State v. Stuart F. Blackwell

• Decision Date: 26 October 1926
• Docket Number: (No. 5463)
• Citation: 102 W.Va. 421
• Parties: State v. Stuart F. Blackwell
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court

102 W.Va. 421

State

v.Stuart F. Blackwell

(No. 5463)

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted October 19, 1926.

Decided October 26, 1926.

1. Criminal Law Conviction is Not Warranted by Extrajudicial Confession of Accused Alone; Extrajudicial Confession of Accused, to Warrant Conviction, Must be Corroborated in Material and Substantial Manner by Evidence Aliunde of Corpus Delicti; Corroborating Evidence, Necessary to Make Extrajudicial Confession Ground for Conviction, is Sufficient if it, With Confession, Establishes Offense Beyond Reasonable Doubt; in Prosecution for Forging Check, Evidence in Connection With Confession Held to Establish Corpus Delicti Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

A conviction in a criminal case is not warranted by the extrajudicial confession of the accused, alone. The confession must be corroborated in a material and substantial manner by evidence aliunde of the corpus delicti. The corroborating evidence, however, need not of itself be conclusive; it is sufficient if when taken in connection with the confession, the crime is established beyond reasonable doubt, (p. 422.)

(Criminal Law, 16 C. J. § 1514.)

2. Same Errors in Giving and Refusing Instructions Are Harmless, Where Evidence is so Conclusive That Only One Verdict Could Have Been Returned,

Errors in giving and refusing instructions are harmless, in a case where the evidence is so conclusive, that only one verdict could have been returned. Pt. 1, Syl. Reilly v., Nicholl, 72 W. Va. 189. (p. 425.)

(Criminal Law, 17 C. J. §§ 3688, 3706.)

(Note: Parenthetical references by Editors, C. J. Cyc. Not part of Syllabi.)

Error to Circuit Court, Mercer County. Stuart F. Black well was convicted of forgery, and he brings error.

Affirmed,

Sanders, Crockett, Fox & Sanders for plaintiff in error. Howard B, Lee, Attorney General and J. Luther Wolfe, Assistant Attorney General for the State.

Hatcher, Judge:

Stuart F. Black well, the defendant below, was indicted at the January term, 1925, of the Criminal Court of Mercer County. The indictment contains four counts. In the first count Black we 11 is charged with forging a certain check for $51.00, drawn on the First National Bank of Bluefield, West Virginia, payable to the order of Holly Brake and signed by Viele, Blackwell & Buck. In the second count the defendant is charged with uttering the forged check. In the third count he is charged with forging the endorsement of Holly Brake on the said check; and in the fourth count he is charged with uttering the forged endorsement. The indictment alleges that the forging and uttering were committed in Mercer County.

The accused plead not guilty to this indictment and went to trial. In addition to evidence aliunde, the State introduced a voluntary written confession by Blackwell, which is in part as follows:

"And I particularly state that on or about December 21, 1923, while in the employ of Viele, Blackwell & Buck in the capacity as aforesaid I prepared a check payable to the order of Holly Brake drawn on The First National Bank of Bluefield, Bluefield, West Virginia, for the sum of Fifty-one ($51.00) Dollars; that I forged the name of Holly Brake on the back of said check and obtained the money thereon and used it for my own personal benefit''.

The defendant did not testify, but evidence was introduced in his behalf showing insanity in his family, and that he had been abnormal and peculiar. Hypothetical questions embodying this family and personal history and the facts relative to the forgery, were propounded to several physicians, who gave opinions thereon, that Blackwell was deranged at the time of the forgery. In rebuttal two non-expert witnesses, who had been associated with defendant in the employment of Viele, Blackwell & Buck, testified that his conduct, as observed by them, had been normal. The jury found Blackwell guilty.

A motion for a new trial was overruled and the defendant sentenced to three years confinement in the penitentiary. He contends that the trial court erred in refusing him a new trial, on the grounds, that, (a) The venue was not proven; (b) the corpus delicti was not proven; (c) State's instruction No. 1 was given, and (d) defendant's instruction No. 8 was rejected.

The State proved that defendant was payroll clerk in the office of Viele, Blackwell & Buck, in the City of Bluefield in Mercer County, and that the endorsement of the name of Holly Brake on the check was a forgery. The forged check was in evidence. It was drawn on The First National Bank of Bluefield; it is stamped "Paid" and bears no endorsements except the name of Holly Brake and that of another Bluefield bank. The check was therefore unquestionably uttered in the City of Bluefield. These facts, sufficiently prove the venue independently of the confession whereby it is fully established. But counsel contend that the confession is not competent evidence, on the theory that there is no evidence aliunde to prove the corpus delicti. 16 C. J. 771, State v. Hall, 31 W. Va. 506; State v. Harrison, 98 W. Va. 227.

The State proved by Holly Brake that the endorsement on the check was not his own; that he did not know "who forged the name of Holly Brake on the back of this check", and that he derived no money from the check. Counsel says, because Brake did not deny having given authority to any one else to endorse the check, the State failed to show a forgery. Romans v. State, (Ohio), 37 N. E. 1040, and other cases are cited. The Attorney General replies that if Brake's name had been written on the check by another at his direction, the signature would have been Brake's endorsement and the testimony of Brake that the check did not bear his endorsement, was in effect a denial of authority in the one who did endorse his name on the check and sufficiently proved a forgery. We are impressed by this argument. It may not be conclusive, but in State v. Hail, supra, an instruction was condemned which called for proof of the commission of a crime, independent of any admissions, beyond reasonable doubt.

We find a general concurrence of decision that proof of the corpus delicti need not be as full and. conclusive in a case where the accused has confessed the crime, as otherwise would be required. 6 A. & E. Ency. Law, p. 582, Mathews v. State, 55...