Rawlings v. State
Rawlings v. State
Opinion of the Court
(after stating the facts). It is contended first for reversal that there was a variance between the proof and the allegations of the indictment, since the check alleged to be uttered as a f orged instrument, was drawn on the Peoples’ Bank of Harrison, as shown by the copy set out in the indictment and the check introduced in evidence, while the indictment stated it purported to be a check drawn on the Citizens’ Bank of Harrison.
It is next insisted that the court erred in giving instruction numbered 10, over appellant’s objection. This instruction reads as follows:
“I charge you that when a party commits a crime, and then confesses freely and voluntarily and without any promise ¡of hope or without any fear of punishment, then the confession is admissible and sufficient under the law to sustain a conviction.
“Confessions, it is true, are always to be received with caution, but they are taken with all the facts and circumstances in tbe case, and, ¡coupled with the ¡additional proof that ¡a crime has been committed. ”
The instruction is not happily phrased, ¡and ¡does not as clearly ¡and definitely express the law as could have ¡been done, but it does in ¡effect tell the jury that the confession must be coupled with the additional proof that the crime has been committed in order to warrant a conviction, and it is not erroneous as already held in Marshall v. State, 84 Ark. 92.
The testimony is not sufficient to support the verdict, and the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.
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