United States v. Washington, Cr. No. 21021.

• Decision Date: 20 December 1946
• Docket Number: Cr. No. 21021.
• Citation: 69 F. Supp. 143
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. WASHINGTON et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

69 F. Supp. 143

UNITED STATES v. WASHINGTON et al.

Cr. No. 21021.

District Court, D. Maryland.

December 20, 1946.

Bernard J. Flynn, U. S. Atty., and James B. Murphy, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Baltimore, Md., for plaintiff.

Ward B. Coe, Jr., of Baltimore, Md., for defendant.

CHESNUT, District Judge.

The question in this criminal case is whether there was sufficient independent evidence of the corpus delicti to corroborate the extra judicial confessions of the defendants. The defendants are jointly charged under 18 U.S.C.A. § 408, with the transportation from Oxford, Pennsylvania, to Waterloo, Maryland of a stolen automobile, knowing the same to have been stolen. In accordance with the now applicable procedure they waived an indictment and agreed to prosecution by information only. Upon their arraignment, being advised of their rights to have counsel appointed to defend them in view of their inability to procure their own counsel, the court appointed Mr. Ward B. Coe, Jr., a member of the Baltimore Bar, as their counsel. They and he as their counsel, and the Assistant United States Attorney, waived a jury trial and requested that the case be tried by the court without a jury. The court deemed the request proper and the case was so tried.

The evidence introduced by the Government (none being offered by the defendants) was the following. The automobile bearing Pennsylvania license plates No. G 812, belonged to one Twyford, a resident of Oxford, Pennsylvania, who there owned a gasoline station. The car was parked by its owner near his place of business about 7 P.M. October 28, 1946. It was taken from there without his permission or knowledge some time thereafter and was found by Maryland State Police, parked without lights, on the Baltimore-Washington Boulevard near Waterloo, Maryland, headed toward Washington, about 1 A.M. on October 29, 1946. It was first observed by Officer Hart of the Maryland State Police as he was proceeding north on the Washington Boulevard in his automobile with a prisoner. He noted a young colored man seated in the automobile and another standing beside it. After passing it, going in a northerly direction, he turned his car and went back toward it. When closely approaching it he noted that both these men were then standing beside the automobile. He turned his police spot light upon them and obtained a good view of them. One was conspicuously dressed. Both men fled, running into an adjoining field. The officer was unable to pursue them in view of his then custody of a prisoner. However, he shortly thereafter telephoned a description of the two men to a nearby police station, and a few hours thereafter, about 9 A.M. another member of the Maryland State Police Force, acting on the description, arrested the two defendants whom he found near Waterloo, Maryland, walking toward Washington on the main highway. The latter officer questioned these two men and was informed by them that they were from Philadelphia and had been hitch-hiking rides toward the south, and had just recently alighted from a truck which had given them a ride. They were arrested on suspicion and taken to the nearby State Police Station. Two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were notified and shortly thereafter interviewed the defendants and took from them signed written statements. These statements were offered and received in evidence without objection. On their face each shows that the statement was voluntarily made after the defendants were warned of their constitutional rights.

The substance of Washington's statement was that he had known Streeter for about two years in Philadelphia and that both of them had been employed for some weeks in a factory in Brighton, New Jersey. They had returned to Philadelphia on October 22, 1946, and after staying there visiting friends for some days, they decided to go to Amarillo, Texas, and started on their journey early on October 28, 1946, hitch-hiking their way by various trucks to Oxford, Pennsylvania. There they spent several hours in a restaurant, and started walking on Highway No. 1 toward the South. Shortly they came to the gas station and decided to rest themselves in the automobile referred to. At first they went to sleep, Washington in the front seat and Streeter in the rear seat. After a short time they woke up and noticed the ignition key in the car. Washington then drove the car from Oxford, Pennsylvania, to Baltimore, Maryland. They asked no one's permission — "We just took this car. Streeter slept most of the way and now and then he would awaken and show me directions. Before we got to Baltimore, Maryland, Streeter rode with me in the front seat of this automobile we had taken." The automobile stopped running near Waterloo on the Baltimore-Washington Highway. They pushed it partly off the traveled portion of the highway. When the police officer approached they ran away through a field and woods, came to a railroad track, found a box car, and slept in it for the remainder of the night. The next morning they returned to the highway and continued walking toward Washington when they were arrested.

Streeter's statement is substantially similar except that he said that when they climbed into the automobile at Oxford he went to sleep on the back seat, and "a short while later Robert woke me up and told me that the keys were in the car. He then suggested we take the car. I did not say `yes' or `no', but went back to sleep. The next thing I knew we were riding and I went back to sleep. The next thing I knew we were in Baltimore, Maryland".

At the conclusion of the evidence counsel for the defendants moved for a directed verdict in their favor or for a judgment of acquittal. The case was then argued orally by counsel and taken under consideration. Subsequently both counsel have furnished more extended briefs on the law and I have made a further independent examination of the subject.

The defendants' contention is not that the confessions were improperly admitted in evidence, but as the confessions were extrajudicial, there was no sufficient independent evidence offered by the Government to corroborate the confessions. It is admitted that the confession of Washington was voluntary and sufficient to show both elements of the crime — that is, (1) interstate transportation of a stolen automobile and (2) knowledge that it was stolen. Some little contention is made that Streeter's confession is not equally sufficient by reason of his sleepy condition. But I do not think this minor contention is substantially sufficient to differentiate the two statements, although each confession is inadmissible against the other defendant. The point, however, that is earnestly urged is that the evidence does not show sufficient corroboration of the corpus delicti.

In criminal cases in the federal courts the admissibility of evidence is now controlled by Rule 26 of the recently adopted Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C.A. following section 687. Rule 26 provides that — "The admissibility of evidence and the competency and privileges of witnesses shall be governed, except when an act of Congress or these rules otherwise provide, by the principles of the common law as they may be interpreted by the courts of the United States in the light of reason and experience."

And with respect to the sufficiency of corroboration of a defendant's confession, federal judicial decisions must control. The rule here is now well established that there must be independent evidence of the corpus delicti, but such independent evidence is not required to be so full and complete as to establish unaided the commission of the crime. It is sufficient if the extrinsic circumstances, taken in connection with the defendant's admission, satisfy the jury (or non-jury judge) of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Jordan v. United States, 4 Cir., 60 F.2d 4, 5, opinion by Circuit Judge Soper, citing Bolland v. United States, 4 Cir., 238 F. 529, 530; Daeche v. United States, 2 Cir., 250 F. 566; Berryman v. United States, 6 Cir., 259 F. 208; Rosenfeld v. United States, 7 Cir., 202 F. 469 and Mangum v. United States, 9 Cir., 289 F. 213. See also the very recent opinion of Circuit Judge Northcott, in Tabor v. United States, 4 Cir., 152 F.2d 254.

The precise meaning of the phrase "corpus delicti" in this context has been the subject of some uncertainty and apparent misunderstanding in some judicial decisions heretofore, but at the present time it is well established, at least by the weight of federal decisions, that here the phrase corpus delicti means that the extrinsic evidence must establish the commission of the crime by somebody, or in other words, that the crime has in fact been committed. It does not mean, as some few decisions have apparently held, that the required corroborative or extrinsic evidence must also show or tend to show that the defendant committed the crime. Wigmore on Evidence, 3d Ed., § 2072; Murray v. United States, 53 App.D.C. 119, 288 F. 1008, 1016; George v. United States, 75 U.S.App.D.C. 197, 125 F.2d 559, 563. The requirement of independent evidence to corroborate the fact that the crime has been committed is, of course, not limited to cases of murder or manslaughter (to which it has particular application) but also includes other crimes as, for instance, the instant charge of interstate transportation of a stolen automobile, knowing it to have been stolen. And, by the weight of the modern judicial opinion in the federal courts the independent evidence must relate to each and all of the several elements of the alleged crime; as, for instance, in the present case, to both the interstate transportation and guilty knowledge by somebody (Forte v. United States, 68 App.D.C. 111, 94 F.2d 236, 127 A.L.R. 1120, a full and learned opinion by Justice Stephens). See also later opinions of the same court upon the same subject, George v. United States, 75 U.S.App.D.C. 197, ...