Stepney v. City of Columbia

• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Smith, C. J.
• Citation: Stepney v. City of Columbia, 157 Miss. 193, 127 So. 687 (Miss. 1930)
• Decision Date: 07 April 1930
• Docket Number: 28688
• Parties: STEPNEY v. CITY OF COLUMBIA

127 So. 687

157 Miss. 193

STEPNEY v. CITY OF COLUMBIA

No. 28688

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 7, 1930

Division A

1. CRIMINAL LAW. Evidence. Confession. Corpus delicti.

Confession is not inadmissible merely because corpus delicti has not been fully proven independent of confession.

2. CRIMINAL LAW. Evidence. Confession. Admissibility. Other circumstances.

Confession is admissible and will sustain conviction where there are other facts and circumstances in evidence sufficient to disclose confession was of real crime.

2. CRIMINAL LAW. Evidence. Confession. Admissibility. Warning statement by policeman.

Confession was not inadmissible because policeman did not warn defendant anything he might say would be used against him.

4. CRIMINAL LAW. Confession. Admissibility. Determination. Truth.

Jury's province.

Admissibility of confession was for Judge's determination, and, when admitted, jury could not disregard it, but could determine whether confession was true.

5. CRIMINAL LAW. Evidence. Articles smelling of liquor. Proving another crime. In prosecution for selling liquor, evidence cork and funnell smelling of liquor were found in automobile held admissible, though tending to show crime of possessing liquor.

The evidence as to the cork and funnel found in automobile tended somewhat to show that defendant had recently had intoxicating liquor in automobile, and therefore that his confession of having sold intoxicating liquor a few minutes before automobile was searched was confession of real, and not of imaginary, crime.

HON. J Q. LANGSTON, Judge.

APPEAL from circuit court of Marion county HON. J. Q. LANGSTON Judge.

Prosecution by the City of Columbia against Herbert Stepney. From the judgment defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Affirmed.

Goss & Goss, of Columbia, for appellant.

A conviction cannot be sustained and will not be upheld on a confession, where it is both free and voluntary, of a person charged with crime, and tending to or directly connecting that person with the crime with which he is charged, where the confession is not supported by independent proof of the corpus delicti of the crime.

Williams v. State, 92 So. 584, 129 Miss. 469; Bolden v. State, 98 Miss. 723, 54 So. 241; Jenkins v. State, 98 Miss. 717, 54 So. 158; Miller et al. v. State, 93 So. 2; Butler v. State, 93 So. 3, 129 Miss. 778; Floyd v. State, 103 So. 368, 138 Miss. 697; 80 Miss. 115, 31 So. 544; 59 Miss. 545; 41 Miss. 582; 32 Miss. 433; 26 Miss. 157; 82 Miss. 498, 34 So. 360; Barron v. State, 111 Miss. 231, 71 So. 374.

Confessions must be shown beyond every reasonable doubt to be free and voluntary, and in the event that they are not so shown, then they should be disregarded.

Johnson v. State, 107 Miss. 196, 65 So. 218, 51 L. R.A., New Series, 1183.

Rawls & Hathorn, of Columbia, for appellee.

While the body of the crime charged against a defendant cannot be proven alone by his own confession of guilt; if there is evidence aliunde the rule is different. Williams v. State, 129 Miss. 473. 7 R. C. L., p. 777; Heard v. State, 59 Miss. 546; Patterson v. State, 127 Miss. 260; Jenkins v. State, 98 Miss. 720.

OPINION

Smith, C. J.

The appellant, accompanied by Marion Marshal, drove an automobile to the residence of Beulah Armstrong in the limits of the city of Columbia. Beulah came to the automobile, and Marshal, who testified on behalf of the state, stated that he saw the appellant deliver to her a jug which he had with him in the automobile, and saw Beulah give the appellant some money. Marshal did not know what the jug contained. They then drove to another portion of the city where the automobile was searched by a policeman and another. The policeman and his companion both testified that the automobile was searched on information that intoxicating liquor was being transported therein, and, their search disclosed two cork stoppers and a tin funnel both of which smelled of whisky. The policeman then told the appellant that "he had the goods on him, and he just as well come across clean." The appellant then confessed that the jug he had delivered to Beulah contained whisky, and that he received from her five dollars therefor.

According to the evidence of the policeman and his companion, no inducement was held out to the appellant for making the confession, and that he was not coerced, in any manner, into making it. Neither the policeman nor his companion warned the appellant that any statement he might make would be used against him. This confession was testified to by Armstrong, the policeman, and his companion, without objection on the part of the appellant. The appellant, when testifying in his own behalf, said that the confession was coerced from him by violence. The appellant's contentions are that: First, the corpus delicti was not proven independent of his confession; second, his confession was erroneously admitted; third, the court erred in refusing two instructions requested by him; and fourth, the admission of the evidence that the cork and funnel found in the automobile smelled of intoxicating liquor.

A confession is not inadmissible in evidence merely because the corpus delicti has not been fully proven independent of such confession. It is admissible and will sustain a conviction where there are other facts and circumstances in evidence sufficient to disclose that the confession was of a real, and not of...