321 Mass. 290 | Mass. | 1947
The defendant was convicted upon a complaint that on or about September 4, 1946, he "did indecently assault and beat” Bertha E. Kimball. His exceptions to the denial of requests for instructions and of his motion for a directed verdict of not guilty raise the question whether he could be convicted upon his own uncorroborated admission of guilt.
In the Superior Court the testimony was given by three witnesses for the Commonwealth. Bertha E. Kimball testified that she was fourteen years of age on June 22, 1946;
Maurice McCarthy testified that he was a police officer of the city of Boston; that in September, 1946, he talked with Bertha Kimball and her mother; that he later talked with the defendant; that he told the defendant that his daughter “claimed” that he had been in bed with her and had put his hand upon her in an indecent manner; that the defendant replied that it was true, that he was lonesome, that it must have been in one of his weak moments, and that it happened once, and never happened again; that Bertha Kimball went to the Dorchester court in September and repeated the accusations to the clerk, whereupon the complaint issued; that she testified in the Dorchester court that on the day in question the defendant had taken her to bed with him and placed his hand upon her in an indecent manner; -and that the defendant denied the accusations in that court.
Bertha Chapin testified that she was a representative of
The judge instructed the jury at the defendant’s request that they could not consider as evidence against the defendant statements of witnesses made outside of court, but could convict him only on the testimony of witnesses produced during the trial; and that the introduction of prior inconsistent statements of the daughter could be considered not as evidence of the defendant’s guilt, but only as bearing upon her credibility.
The judge, subject to the defendant’s exception, denied two requests for instructions presented by the defendant: “2. In view of the fact that the defendant is charged with an indecent assault and battery on his daughter and in view of the fact that the daughter now testifies during this trial that no indecent assault was committed upon her by the defendant, they must return a verdict of not guilty against the defendant. 3. The jury cannot convict the defendant on his alleged admission made prior to this trial in view of the testimony of the daughter that no assault was committed upon her.”
The net effect of the rulings was to exclude from the consideration of the jury as evidence of guilt everything save the admission of the defendant to the police officer, but to permit them to convict on that admission alone. The defendant contends that he cannot be thus convicted in the face of the daughter’s testimony denying the commission of the crime charged. He points out that the general rule elsewhere in this country is that guilt cannot be established by the confession of the accused unsupported by corroborative evidence. See Commonwealth v. Killion, 194 Mass. 153, 154-155; Wharton’s Criminal Law (12th ed.) §§ 357, 359; Wigmore, Evidence (3d ed.) §§ 2070, 2071; 20 Am. Jur., Evidence, § 1242; 40 Am. L. R. 460; 127 Am. L. R. 1130.
Exceptions overruled.