153 Mich. 293 | Mich. | 1908
Respondent is charged, in the information, with obtaining' money by false pretenses. The pretenses alleged are that he was owner of a certain check and order for the payment of money, that the check was of the value of $50, and that there was on deposit at the place of payment designated in the check $50 with which to pay it when presented, and that said sum would be paid to the complainant, or bearer, upon presentation of the check, and that there was at the place of payment a book, No. 583, and would be when the check was presented, and that said book showed a balance on deposit of $478. A copy of the check is set out, as follows:
*295 “ New York, April 4, 1907. $50.00
“ Pay on Book No. 583.
“Union Dime Savings Institution.
“Broadway, 32nd St. & 6th Ave.
“Fifty dollars, to myself or bearer, and this shall be your receipt.
Signature, “L. J. Cameron.
“ Individually, or as trustee, as the book reads,
“ Present Address, Grand Rapids, Mich.
“Previous Balance $478.00.
“ Endorsed on Back, M. C. Ranney, J. E. Rice.”
The record discloses that respondent procured the check to be cashed at a hotel where he was stopping, paid his bill out of the proceeds and retained the balance. The hotel keeper indorsed the check and negotiated it with a merchant, who deposited it in a local bank for collection. It was sent by the local bank to New York city and returned unpaid. There is no other testimony tending to prove that the check was ever presented at the designated place of payment. Beyond the fact that the check was so forwarded and so returned unpaid, there is nothing tending to prove the check was worthless except an alleged confession of respondent, testified to by officers who had him in charge.
It is contended, and it is the principal question presented, that there was no sufficient proof of the commission of the offense. The proposition advanced is that the commission of a felony cannot be proved by the extrajudicial confession of the accused. Applied to this case, this means that guilt of the respondent may not be determined by his confession that the check was, and was by him known to be, worthless; that the people were bound to show presentation of the check to the Union Dime Savings Institution, in New York, if such an institution existed; that it was not drawn against funds, that payment was refused.
It is the general rule that the corpus delicti may not be proved by the naked extrajudicial confession of the accused. 12 Cyc. p. 483; 6 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2d
“ There are some cases where the corpus delicti — generally in homicide — is clearly separated and distinct from the question as to who committed the offense, if any is found to have been committed. In such cases the evidence to establish the corpus deliciti must first be given, before acts or admissions of the accused can be put in evidence. But the present case is one where the body of the offense — the uttering of a forged instrument, knowing it to be false — is so intimately connected with the question whether or not the respondent is guilty of the crime, that there can be no such separation. The corpus delicti in this case depends entirely for its existence upon the acts and intent of the respondent, so that her acts and admissions, if admissible at all, were admissible at any stage of the proceedings upon the trial.”
For the purposes of the present case, it may be conceded that it was necessary that the confession of respondent should be corroborated as to the corpus delicti. Whether we consider only the first or the first and.second elements, as stated, as constituting the corpus delicti, there is, in this case, evidence corroborating the facts stated by respondent in his confession. I use the term corroborate as meaning not merely tending to produce confidence in the truth of the confession, but as referring to facts which concern the corpus delicti. This is the legally correct meaning. 3 Wigmore on Evidence, § 2071. There is evidence undisputed — indeed corroborated by respondent — that he applied to Mr. Rice, the keeper of the hotel, to cash the check, that the check was cashed and respondent received the money. The check was forwarded in the usual course of business to New York and was returned unpaid. It has not been paid and Mr. Rice has never received his money. Before the check was cashed, and as an inducement, respondent, who was at the hotel with a woman not his wife, and owed the proprietor for entertainment, stated that they were going to Muskegon for three or four days and would then return to the hotel, and that mean
During the trial the prosecuting attorney, over objection, obtained leave of the court to indorse upon the information the name of a witness who was thereupon called, sworn, and examined. The testimony of this witness, or that of some other person connected with the bank which forwarded the check for collection, was necessary if the fact was to be proved. On a motion made previous to the trial to discharge the respondent, the subject was adverted to in such a manner that it is apparent the prosecuting attorney must have known he would probably need the witness at the trial. Counsel for respondent, before learning the nature of the testimony to be elicited from the new witness, stated that he would need time to send to New York to find out in regard to the check. Upon learning that it was proposed to prove only that the check went through the bank, was sent on for collection and re
Error is assigned upon a statement, made, in argument, by the prosecuting attorney, to the effect that respondent was committing adultery every day. The remark was excepted to. The point made seems to be that there was no proof that either the respondent or the woman he was traveling with was married. But they were registered as man and wife and respondent testified they were not married. The gist of the argument was, not that the relations were such as the word used defines, but that they were immoral, affecting the credibility of respondent. "We should not reverse the conviction upon this ground.
A number of errors are assigned upon the charge as given and upon refusal to charge as requested. They have been examined and the charge as given has been carefully read without our being able to say that any reversible error was committed.
Judgment is affirmed.