1 Morr. St. Cas. 691 | Miss. | 1872
The plaintiff in error was indicted and tried in the circuit court of Issaquena county, and convicted of the murder of Decatur Whitley. The bill of exceptions filed to the decision of the court overruling the motion for a new trial embodies the whole of the evidence submitted to the jury. Several exceptions were taken to the rule of the court in reference to the admission of evidence on the trial. The charges of the court, and its refusal to instruct the jury as requested by the counsel for the plaintift in error, are made the grounds of exception. The bills of exception filed to these various acts of the court present the questions which it becomes our duty to examine and decide. The questions arising upon the introduction of evidence naturally present themselves first for our consideration.
During the examination in chief of a witness called on the
It is now insisted that the question was a leading one, and the answer thereto illegal and incompetent evidence.
A leading question has been defined to be one which directly suggests the answer which is desired, or which embodies a material fact and admits of an answer by a simple negative or affirmative, though neither the one nor the other be suggested.
The following questions, set out in the second and fourth bills of exception, are objected to on the same grounds, to wit: 1. “ If he (witness) was induced to leave Alabama and go to Mississippi by reason of a letter received from Decatur "Whitley?” 2. “ Did you carry property from Bunch’s Bend in Issaquena county, as the property of Decatur Whitley, deceased ? ” The answers to these questions are set out in the bills of exception, and are objected to as illegal and incompetent testimony.
It is obvious that the latter question was illegal. No direct evidence had been adduced to prove that a homicide had been committed upon the person of Decatur Whitley, or that the killing occurred within the county of Issaquena. If the prosecution failed to establish either of these facts, the acquittal of the prisoner would necessarily ensue. It was therefore indispensable to prove, not only that Whitley was dead, but that he had been killed in the county of Issaquena. If it could be
Another and a more serious objection to the first and last questions which we have been considering, arises when they are looked at in a different point of view. The matter intended to be extracted by these questions was irrelevant, and therefore incompetent evidence in the cause. By the first question, the witness is asked if he had ever received a letter purporting to be from Decatur Whitley ? If so, at what place was it dated, and where postmarked ? Supposing the witness to state, as in fact he did, that he had received a letter purporting to be from Whitley, and that it was dated at the place and near the time when the alleged homicide occurred, it will certainly not be contended that such an answer was competent evidence. If it were admitted to have been competent to give parol evidence of the contents of the letter, without first proving that it was in the handwriting of Whitley, or accounting for its non-production, the answer of the witness would not ascend upon the roll of testimony, even to the dignity of hearsay evidence. But let it be assumed that the letter was proved to be in the handwriting of Wiiitley, and that it was dated from the island of Bunch’s Bend Cut-off. Upon such admission, a fact would be established from which the jury might legitimately have drawn the conclusion that the letter was in point of fact written by Whitley whilst upon the island; but it could not certainly warrant the presumption that he was there at any other point of time, and more especially at the date of the alleged murder. If the fact had been conclusively proved, by direct evidence, that Whitley was, within some short time before the alleged homicide, upon the island,, the presumption might have been feebly indulged that he remained there until its occurrence. But to make the answer of the witness, assuming that the letter was in the hand
The same observations are applicable, to some extent, to the last question and answer. The fact that the witness had carried property from Bunch’s Bend in Issaquena county to Alabama, as the property of Decatur Whitley, deceased, might constitute the basis of a presumption, that the property so transported was, in truth, the property of the deceased, but it could not warrant the inference that Whitley was ever in the county, not having been otherwise proved to have been there, much less could it, upon any principle of law, or logic, sustain the conclusion, that he was there at the date of the alleged murder.
The questions which come next in order, arise upon the exceptions taken to the instructions of the court.
On the part of the defense the court was requested to instruct the jury as follows, to wit: 1. “Although the jury may believe from the evidence in the cause, that the prisoner confessed to the negro King that he had killed Decatur Whitley, yet if that confession is unsupported by other proof that said Whitley was killed, they must find the prisoner not guilty.” 2. “ That the best evidence that Decatur Whitley was killed, is the testimony of some one who saw him when killed, or who has seen his dead body; and unless the jury believe, from the testimony in the case, that some one who has testified before them saw Whitley killed, or his dead body, they will find the defendant not guilty.” These instructions were disallowed by the court.
The court was further requested to instruct the jury, 1. “ That if they believe from the evidence that the prisoner made any confessions or admissions of guilt, such confessions or admissions are to be received by them with great caution, and, unless supported by other proof in the cause, are not sufficient to convict.”
Without pausing to consider the minor objections which were urged against these instructions, we will at once proceed to the examination of the main question which they present; that is, Whether the extra judicial confessions of a prisoner charged with a capital felony is sufficient, without any proof whatever, independent of the confession of the corpus delicti, to authorize a verdict of guilty ?
It is well settled by the law of England, that a voluntary and unsuspected confession of guilt, whether made in the course of conversation with private individuals, or under examination before a magistrate, is clearly sufficient to warrant a conviction whenever there is independent proof of the corpus delicti.
The cases cited in support of the text in Boscoe and Bussell, are, Wheeling’s case, 1 Leach, 311; Eldridge’s case, Faulkner’s case, White’s case, and the case of King v. Tippet, reported in Buss. & By. Upon examination it will be found, that in each of these cases, with the exception of that of Wheeling’s, there was, independent of the confession, some corroborating circumstance which tended to prove the commission of a felony. Russ. on Cr., 834 (n. b); 1 Greenl. Ev., 279, n. In reference to Wheeling’s case, it is observed in Greenleaf’s Evidence, that “ it is too briefly reported to be relied on.” The whole statement of that case in 1 Leach, 311, is, that “ it was determined that a prisoner may be convicted on his own confession, when proved by legal testimony, although it is totally uncorroborated by any other evidence.” It is manifest that this statement may mean, that where the commission of a felony is proved by evidence aliunde, a prisoner may be convicted on his confession, notwithstanding there be nothing to corroborate his confession as to his agency in the commission of the felony. It does not, therefore, appear that it has ever been expressly decided that the naked confession of a prisoner alone, and without any other evidence, is sufficient to authorize a jury to convict.
In the United States, the very few adjudicated cases on the question under consideration, are not harmonious. In the State of North Carolina, State v. Cowan, 7 Ired., 239, it was decided, that a prisoner may be convicted on his own unbiassed confession without corroborative evidence establishing a felony. The supreme court of the State of New Jersey appears to have adopted the contrary doctrine, and to have held that the naked confession of the prisoner was not sufficient to justify a verdict of guilty. State v. Aaron, 1 South., 231; Guild’s case, 5 Hal., 163.
This question is one of the first impression in this court, and its importance has induced us to bestow upon it the greatest deliberation which circumstances would permit. We believe the doctrine which holds that, in capital felonies, the prisoner’s confession, when the corpus delicti is not proved by independent testimony, is insufficient for his conviction, best accords with the solid principles of reason, and the caution which should be applied in the admission and estimate of this species of e vidence. We hold, therefore, that the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury, that the extra-judicial confession of a prisoner, without proof aliunde of the commission of a felony, and of the death, was insufficient to warrant his conviction.
As we reverse the judgment for the errors already noticed, it will be unnecessary to examine the remaining exceptions.
Snyder v. Snyder, 6 Binn., 483; Harrison v. Rowan, 8 Wash., 580; Parkin v. Moon, 7 C. & P., 408; Alison’s Practice, 545; Tait on Ev., 427; Turney v. State, 8 S. & M., 104; Roscoe Cr. Ev., 130; Kemmerrer v. Edelman, 11 Harris, 143; Wilson v. McCullough, ib., 440; Lee v. Tinges, 7 Maryland, 215; Sexton v. Brock, 15 Ark., 345; Willis v. Quinsby, 11 Foster, 485; Bartlet v. Hoyt, 33 N. H., 151; Floyd v. State, 30 Ala., 511; Mathis v. Buford, 17 Tex., 152; Hofler v. State, 16 Ark., 534; Spear v. Richardson, 37 N. H., 23; Dudley v. Elkins, 39 N. H., 78; Allen v. State, 38 Ga., 395; Page v. Parker, 40 N. H., 47; Pelamourgis v. Clark, 9 Iowa, 1; Shields v. Guffey, 1 ib., 322; Hopper v. Commonwealth, 6 Grattan, 684; Roscoe Nisi Prius Ev., 171; 2 Russ. on Cr., 913; Nicholls v. Dowding & Kemp, 1 Stark N. P. C., 81; 2 Eng. C. L. R., 305; People v. Mather, 4 Wend., 231; 1 Archbold Cr. Pr. & Pl. 577; Peake’s Ev., 196.
5 Halstead, N. J. R., 163, 185; Haywood, 455, 524; 1 Greenl. Ev., 217-219, 220; 3 ib., 30; Rex v. Benditt, 4 B. & Ald., 123; Pitts v. State, 43 Miss., 472; Bergen v. People, 17 Ills., 427; 3 Parker Cr. R., 401; 2 Hawk. P. C., ch. 46, § 18; Brown v. State, 32 Miss., 433; 1 Leach Cr. Law, 311; 1 Phill. Ev., 532; Brown v. State, 33 Miss., 433; Tyner v. —, 5 Humphreys, 383; Roscoe Cr. Evi., 38, et seq.; People v. Hennesey, 15 Wend., 147; Keithler v. State, 14 S. & M., 192; Stephen v. State, 11 Ga., 225; People v. Badgeley, 16 Wend., 63; State v. Fields, Peck Rep., 140; State v. Gardiner, Wright, 392; 1 Arcbhold Cr. Pr. & Pl., 406; Roscoe Cr. Ev., 29. See Russ. on Cr., 825; Wharton’s Am. Cr. Law, 683; Burrill on Circ. Ev., 498, 499; Rex v. Eldridge, Russ. & Ry., 440.