Williams v. State

Citations

• 129 Miss. 469
• 92 So. 584

Syllabus

<p>1. CRIMINAL Law. Corpus delicti cannot he established by confession of accused alone.</p> <p>The corpus delicti cannot be proven alone by the confession of the defendant.</p> <p>2. Criminai. Law. Evidence obtained by unlawful search of premises of accused inadmissible.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>3. Criminal Law. Evidence unlawfully obtained by search corroborated only by accused’s confession of corpus delicti held insufficient.</p> <p>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.</p>