Steele v. State
| Decision Date | 10 December 1949 |
| Citation | 189 Tenn. 424,25 Beeler 424,225 S.W.2d 260 |
| Parties | , 189 Tenn. 424 STEELE et al. v. STATE. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
E. R. Blankenship, Knoxville, C. R. McClain, Knoxville, for plaintiffs in error.
Nat Tipton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The defendants appeal from conviction of rape and punishment fixed at death by electrocution.
This case was before this Court at the September term, 1948, following a conviction for the same offense with the same penalty, and was reversed because of inadmissible evidence introduced in the court below.
At the time of the commission of the offense the defendants were 18 and 19 years of age respectively. They do not seem to have been involved in any criminal proceedings heretofore. The injured female, Mrs. Annie Kennedy, was a woman 58 years of age and a grandmother.
On March 28, 1948, Mrs. Kennedy went to a picture show, accompanied by her five-year-old granddaughter. This show was near her home which seems to have been in a section of Knoxville largely populated by Negroes. The night in question was very bad and rainy. According to Mrs. Kennedy's testimony, as she returned toward her home from the show, she was confronted by some Negro who announced that he wanted to walk home with her. She indignantly repulsed his advances, went a short distance to a street light, stood there five or ten minutes, and then thinking that she could proceed safely, started on her way home.
Mrs. Kennedy testified that when she had proceeded about halfway from this street light to her home she was assaulted by two Negroes--one tall and heavy-set and the other somewhat smaller; that the larger of these Negroes dragged her from the street over into a vacant field near a pig pen; that the smaller Negro held her five-year-old granddaughter while she was criminally assaulted; that after the larger Negro assaulted her against her will with force, he called the other one, who was holding her granddaughter, and the second Negro ravished her. Mrs. Kennedy was unable to distinguish the features of the defendants, but did testify that the two defendants resemble very closely in size her attackers. After the second Negro had accomplished his purpose, both of them ran. Mrs. Kennedy rushed to her home and the police were immediately notified.
As a result of much investigation, a Negro cab driver, Columbus Stevens, and another Negro by the name of James Simpson were questioned by the officers. It seems that Stevens had driven Simpson to a point near the place of the assault and there he saw the defendant Bearden. Simpson was employed by the Southern Railway, and he testified that on the night of the assault he had been driven to this corner near the scene of the assault and there saw the defendants, that he got a match from one of them, that about his time he saw a woman with a little girl going down the street, and that defendant Bearden made a remark to him disclosing his intention to have carnal knowledge of this woman. Simpson further testified that both defendants appeared to have been drinking, and that he asked Bearden if he was not drunk, following this remark about his intention.
As a result of this interview by the police officers with Stevens and Simpson, Bearden was arrested. The record is rather indefinite as to how long Bearden was held in custody before confessing his part in the assault. It does show that Bearden's grandparents, who reared him, were permitted to see him, and he was urged in their presence to tell the truth. Bearden was later confronted by Stevens and made a confession in which he admitted that he and Steele assaulted Mrs. Kennedy. There is no insistence by Bearden that there was any force or duress used upon him.
After Bearden's confession, Steele was brought in by the officers and questioned for a short time with reference to his part in the assault. The officers described his manner as being very composed at first and until they read to him Bearden's confession, and that immediately thereafter he became nervous and at an apparent loss to know what to do. They brought Bearden before Steele, and Bearden repeated his confession to Steele, after which he became even more nervous. One of the officers testified that he was slobbering.
Steele was turned over to other officers for the purpose of having him fingerprinted about 2 p. m. on the afternoon of April 6, 1948, and about 5:30 on this same afternoon he made a complete confession of his part in the assault. Steele claimed that after he was carried back to the jail and in this interval between 2 p. m. and 5:30, he was beaten severely with a rubber hose by one of the deputies named Hobbs. Hobbs and the others who were present during this time denied that he was touched. Hobbs was corroborated in this respect by two factors. The confession was made about 5:30 in the presence of the district attorney general, one of his then assistants, and others. These parties all testified that Steele showed no signs of any punishment or injuries about the face, where he claimed he was struck by this deputy, and in addition thereto, a picture of him was taken two days later, about April 8. This picture was examined by the trial judge in passing on the question as to whether defendant was struck. In overruling the objection to the admissibility of the confession, the trial judge stated that he had examined the picture carefully,...
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