Johnson v. State

Citations

• 107 Miss. 196
• 65 So. 218

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Law. Evidence. Confession. Voluntary. Admissibility. Preliminary evidence. Threats.</p> <p>A voluntary confession is one proceeding from the spontaneous operation of the party’s own mind, free from the influence of any extraneous disturbing cause. A confession was not voluntary which was obtained from a defendant who was sick and in jail and in fear of lynching by a newspaper reporter who told the defendant he would have no peace or hope of' salvation unless he confessed, that he, the reporter, was a “Spiritualist” and could look into the defendant’s heart, and see the crime which he had committed.</p> <p>2. Confessions. Admissibility. Sufficiency of preliminary evidence.</p> <p>If on preliminary hearing by the court, there is a reasonable doubt as to whether a confession was freely and voluntarily made, it must be excluded from the jury, and after a confession has, .on preliminary hearing by the court, been admitted to go to the jury, either party may introduce the same evidence as was submitted to the court, and any additional evidence relative to its weight or credibility, and if it then, or at any stage of the trial, appears that the confession was made under circumstances rendering it incompetent, it should be excluded. It is necessary to look to all the surroundings of the person making the confession in order to determine whether it is rendered inadmissible because it resulted from fear or threat or undue influence of a person, even though one not in authority, operating upon the mind of the person confessing. Even the act of third persons may amount to a threat excluding confession though no objectionable words are spoken.</p>