Ellis v. State

Citations

• 65 Miss. 44

Syllabus

<p>1. Confession. Admission of. Province of court. Garrard v. Stele, 50 Miss. 147, overruled.</p> <p>To render the confession of a defendant in a criminal ease admissible as evidence the court must, if requested by him, determine outside of the hearing of the jury whether such confession was made voluntarily; and it is within the exclusive province of the court to determine this, and riot a question for the jury, even though the evidence on such point be conflicting. Garrard v. The State, 50 Miss. 147, overruled.</p> <p>2. Same. When admissible, and when not.</p> <p>If the court be satisfied, after hearing all the testimony pertinent to the inquiry, that such confession is admissible in evidence, it should go to the jury; but if there is a reasonable doubt against it being free and voluntary, it should be excluded from the jury.</p> <p>3. Same. Evidence relating io. Exclusion of confession.</p> <p>After a confession has been admitted in evidence by the court, either party has the right to produce the same evidence as was submitted to the court on the inquiry as to the competency of the confession, and any additional evidence relevant to the confession or affecting its weight or credibility; and if it should appear then, or at any other stage of the proceedings, that the confession was made in such circumstances as to render it incompetent as evidence, it should be excluded by the court.</p> <p>4. Same. How lo be considered by jury.</p> <p>If a confession is admitted as evidence, the jury may deal .with it as other testimony, attaching to it whatever credence or weight may seem proper to them under the circumstances. But they cannot reject it entirely, because it may seem to them not to have been made voluntarily.</p> <p>5. Same. Instructions in reference to. Oase in judgment.</p> <p>It is not error to instruct the jury trying a criminal case, in reference to a confession of the accused, that if they “ believe from the evidence that the confession of the defendant wa