25 Mo. 176 | Mo. | 1857
delivered the opinion of the court.
• This was an indictment against Robert McDonald for adultery. He appeared to the indictment and pleaded “ not guilty.” There was a trial, and the defendant was convicted. He moved for a new trial, which being denied, he brings the case here by appeal.
The only question for our determination is, whether defendant’s confession that he was married was competent evidence. On the trial below, the State, to prove the marriage of defendant at the time of the alleged adultery, &c., offered the declarations of the defendant, made before and after the alleged adultery, to the effect that the said Rebecca was his wife, and that he had intermarried with her in the state of Pennsylvania. The defendant objected to the introduction of such evidence as incompetent to prove a marriage in fact; but the court overruled the objection, and let in the evidence. The defendant saved the point, and this is the only question in the case.
Greenleaf, in his treatise on evidence, (1 Greenl. Ev. § 215,) says: “ Subject to these cautions in receiving and weighing them, it is generally agreed that deliberate confessions of guilt are among the most effectual proofs in the law.” “ Their value depends on the supposition that they are deliberate and voluntary, and on the presumption that a rational being will not make admissions prejudicial to his interest and safety, unless when urged by the promptings of truth and conscience.” In the same treatise, (2 Greenl. Ev. § 45, tit. Adultery,) it is said: “ As to proof by the confession of the party, no difference of principle is perceived between this crime and any other. It has already been shown that a deliberate and voluntary confession of guilt is among the most weighty and effectual proofs in the law.” In Oayford’s case, 7 Maine, 57, it was held that in an indictment for lewd cohabitation, adultery or bigamy, the prisoner’s confession of the fact of his
I have not considered it necessary to comment on or to notice in this opinion the various decisions against this evidence. I have examined .the cases referred to in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and' Kentucky. Upon a full examination of the authorities, both elementary and of decided cases, we are unanimously and clearly of the opinion that such evidence is competent. The court therefore committed no error in receiving it; nor in refusing the instructions asked for by defendant in regard to it. Let the judgment be affirmed ; the other judges concurring.