Williams v. State
Williams v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Appellant, Moody Williams, was indicted and convicted in the circuit court of I)e Soto county of the crime of manufacturing intoxicating liquors, and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of two years, from which he prosecutes this appeal.
Appellant was arrested at night without a warrant, and placed in jail at Hernando, the county site of De Soto county, where he remained until the next morning. On the next morning, which was Sunday, either before or about daylight, the appellant was taken out of jail
This court has held many times, and' the rule is probably universal in the United States, that the body of the crime charged against a defendant cannot be proven alone by his own confession of guilt. Sam v. State, 33 Miss. 347; Stanley v. State, 82 Miss. 498, 34 So. 360; Murray v. State, 104 Miss. 296, 61 So. 315; Barron v. State, 111 Miss. 231, 71 So. 374; Rayborn v. State, 115 Miss. 730, 76 So. 639; Patterson v. State (Miss.), 90 So. 2. This principle grew out of the fact that a considerable number of persons, if permitted, for one cause or another will confess guilt of imaginary and not real crimes.
The only evidence in this case corroborating the confession of the appellant as to the body of the crime is the fact that there was found on appellant’s premises parts of a still by means of which he stated he manufactured whiskey which had been found in the possession of one Greer in Hernando the day before. The facts
In Tucker v. State (Miss.), 90 So. 845, it was held that where a defendant was charged with the unlawful making of intoxicating liquors, the officers making the search of his, home and premises without a search warrant, whose testimony was based alone on what they saw in his home and on his premises in making such search, such evidence of the officers could not be used against the defendant, because a conviction on such testimony violated section 23 of our Constitution, guaranteeing the people against unreasonable searches and seizures, and that clause of section 26 of our Constitution guaranteeing a defendant in a criminal case against self-incrimination. It was held in the Tucker Case-that there was no difference in principle in forcing a defendant to speak against himself by word of mouth and in forcing by an unlawful search the secret things of his home to give evidence against him; that in either case his constitutional guaranty against self-incrimination would be violated.
Stripped of this corroborating evidence thus obtained, appellant’s conviction stands alone on his own confession, and it follows that the court below should have excluded the state’s evidence and directed a verdict of not guilty.
Reversed, and judgment here discharging the defendant.
Reversed.
Reference
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- 1. CRIMINAL Law. Corpus delicti cannot he established by confession of accused alone. The corpus delicti cannot be proven alone by the confession of the defendant. 2. Criminai. Law. Evidence obtained by unlawful search of premises of accused inadmissible. Evidence obtained against a defendant in a criminal case as the result of a search of his home and premises without a search warrant in violation of section 23 of the Constitution cannot be used against such defendant on his trial, because to do so would violate that clause of section 26 of the Constitution guaranteeing persons charged with crime against forced self-incrimination; there being no difference in principle in forcing a defendant to speak against himself by word of mouth, and in forcing, by an unlawful search, the contents of his home and -premises to give evidence against him. In either case his constitutional guaranty against being compelled to give evidence against himself is ' violated. 3. Criminal Law. Evidence unlawfully obtained by search corroborated only by accused’s confession of corpus delicti held insufficient. If such evidence so obtained is the only evidence corroborative of defendant’s confession of the corpus delicti it is insufficient to sustain a conviction.