Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/168/532/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 22:03:08+00:00

Document:
"She had on board a captain, Charles I. Nash; Bram, the defendant; a second mate, August W. Blomberg; a steward; and six seamen; also the captain's wife, Laura A. Nash, and one passenger, Lester H. Monks."
the officer in charge. The captain, his wife, the passenger, Monks, and the first mate and the second mate, all lived in the after-cabin, occupying separate rooms. . . . The crew and the steward slept forward in the forward house."
"When the watch was changed at midnight, Bram, the defendant, took the deck, the seamen Loheac and Perdok went forward on the lookout, and Charles Brown, otherwise called Justus Leopold Westerberg, his true name, took the wheel, where it was his duty to remain till two o'clock, at about which time he was relieved by Loheac. The second mate went to his room and the seamen of his watch to their quarters at twelve midnight, and there was no evidence that any of them or the steward appeared again till daylight."
Blomberg, the second mate, were all dead, each with several wounds upon the head, apparently given with a sharp instrument, like an axe, penetrating the skull, and into the substance of the brain; and the second mate lying on his back, with his feet crossed, in his berth; Mrs. Nash in her bed, in her room, and at the back side of the bed; and Captain Nash in his room, as already stated."
"The whole crew was called at or about daylight, and were informed of the deaths."
"The bodies were removed from the cabin, and placed in the jolly boat, and the boat was towed astern to Halifax. The cabin was then locked, Bram taking the keys, and it remained locked till the vessel reached Halifax."
"At first, after the discovery of the murders, there was some hesitancy as to where the vessel should go. At the defendant's suggestion, she was headed to go to Cavenne, in French Guiana; but the plan was changed, and she steered for Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she arrived July 21st, and was taken possession of by the local authorities, at the instance of the consul general of the United States."
"At first, after the discovery of the murders, Bram, on whom had devolved the command of the ship, made Brown chief mate and Loheac second mate."
"No blood or spots of blood were ever discovered on the person or the clothing of any person on board, nor did anything direct suspicion to any one."
declaring his innocence. Bram and Brown were both carried into Halifax in irons."
The bill of exceptions further states that, when the ship arrived at Halifax, the accused and Brown were held in custody by the chief of police at that place, and that, while in such custody, the accused was taken from prison to the office of a detective, and there questioned, under circumstances to be hereafter stated. Subsequently to this occurrence at Halifax, all the officers, the crew, and the passenger were examined before the American consul, and gave their statements, which were reduced to writing and sworn to. They were thereafter, at the request of the American consul, sent to Boston, where the accused was indicted for the murder of Nash, the captain, of Mrs. Nash, and the second mate, Blomberg. The trial and the conviction now under review related to the first of these charges. The errors which are here assigned as grounds for reversal are more than 60 in number, and are classified by the counsel for the accused as follows: (a) questions raised preliminary to the trial; (b) questions raised during the trial; (c) questions raised in connection with two motions for a new trial.
at Halifax, when no one was present besides Bram and the witness. The witness testified that no threats were made in any way to Bram, nor any inducements held out to him."
"The witness was then asked: 'What did you say to him and he to you?'"
"To this, the defendant's counsel objected. The defendant's counsel was permitted to cross-examine the witness before the court ruled upon the objection, and the witness stated that the conversation took place in his office, where he had caused the defendant, Bram, to be brought by a police officer; that, up to that time, the defendant had been in the custody of the police authorities of Halifax, in the custody of the superintendent of police, John O'Sullivan; that the witness asked that the defendant should be brought to his office for the purpose of interviewing him; that, at his office, he stripped the defendant and examined his clothing, but not his pockets; that he told the defendant to submit to an examination, and that he searched him; that the defendant was then in custody, and did everything the witness directed him to do; that the witness was then a police officer, acting in his official capacity; that all this took place before the defendant had been examined before the United States consul; and that the witness did not know that the local authorities had at that time taken any action, but that the defendant was held for the United States -- for the consul general of the United States."
"The witness answered questions by the court as follows:"
"You say there was no inducement to him in the way of promise or expectation of advantage?"
"A. No, sir; not any."
"Q. No influence on your part exerted to persuade him on way or the other?"
"The defendant then renewed his objection to the question what conversation had taken place between Bram and the witness, for the following reasons: that, at the time, the defendant was in the custody of the chief of police at Halifax; that the witness, in an official capacity, directed the police authorities to bring the defendant as a prisoner to his private office, and there proceeded to take extraordinary liberties with him. He stripped him. The defendant understood that he was a prisoner, and he obeyed every order and direction that the witness gave. Under these circumstances, the counsel submitted that no statement made by the defendant while so held in custody, and his rights interfered with to the extent describe, was a free and voluntary statement, and no statement as made by him bearing upon this issue was competent."
"The objection was overruled, and the defendant excepted on all the grounds above stated, and the exceptions were allowed."
"The witness answered as follows:"
"When Mr. Bram came into my office, I said to him: 'Bram, we are trying to unravel this horrible mystery.' I said: 'Your position is rather an awkward one. I have had Brown in this office, and he made a statement that he saw you do the murder.' He said: 'He could not have seen me. Where was he?' I said: 'He states he was at the wheel.' 'Well,' he said, 'he could not see me from there.' I said: 'Now, look here, Bram, I am satisfied that you killed the captain from all I have heard from Mr. Brown. But,' I said, 'some of us here think you could not have done all that crime alone. If you had an accomplice, you should say so, and not have the blame of this horrible crime on your own shoulders.' He said: 'Well, I think, and many others on board the ship think, that Brown is the murderer; but I don't know anything about it.' He was rather short in his replies."
"A. No; there was nothing further said on that occasion. "
"The direct examination of this witness was limited to the interview between the witness and the defendant, Bram."
"On cross-examination of the witness Power, he testified that, at the time of the above-stated examination, he took possession of a pair of suspenders belonging to the defendant, and kept the same in his office until the prisoners were coming to Boston -- the whole crew and the passenger were imprisoned at Halifax, and sent as prisoners to Boston -- when he handed them over to the Halifax superintendent of police, and they were sent to Boston, with other property of the defendant."
"Defendant's counsel, upon the ground of showing interest on the part of the witness, then asked: 'What other articles belonging to the defendant did you take possession of at that time?'"
"This line of inquiry was objected to by the district attorney on the ground that the matter was not opened on the direct examination, and the defendant could call the witness as part of his case if he saw fit. The court excluded the inquiry, ruling that it was not proper cross-examination, and did not tend to show interest, and the defendant duly excepted, and the exception was allowed."
"The rule excludes not only direct confessions, but any other declaration tending to implicate the prisoner in the crime charged, even though, in terms, it is an accusation of another or a refusal to confess. Rex v. Tyler, 1 Car. & P. 129; Rex v. Enoch, 5 Car. & P. 539. See further, as to the object of the rule, Rex v. Court, 7 Car. & P. 486, per Littledale, J.; People v. Ward, 15 Wend. 231."
"the evidence of its voluntary character, the absence of any threat, compulsion, or inducement, or assertion or indication of fear, or even of such influence as the administration of an oath has been supposed to exert."
"But the State says this was a denial of guilt, and not a confession. It was a declaration which the State used to procure a to prove guilt, and therefore was admissible, say the declaration did not prejudice the prisoner's case. Why introduce it at all unless it was to lay a foundation for the prosecution? The use which was made of the prisoner's statement precludes the State from saying that it was not used to his prejudice."
In criminal trials, in the courts of the United States, wherever a question arises whether a confession is incompetent because not voluntary, the issue is controlled by that portion of the Fifth Amendment to the constitution of the United States commanding that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." The legal principle by which the admissibility of the confession of an accused person is to be determined is expressed in the textbooks.
promises, however slight, nor by the exertion of any improper influence. . . . A confession can never be received in evidence where the prisoner has been influenced by any threat or promise; for the law cannot measure the force of the influence used, or decide upon its effect upon the mind of the prisoner, and therefore excludes the declaration if any degree of influence has been exerted."
And this summary of the law is in harmony with the doctrine as expressed by other writers, although the form in which they couch its statement may be different. 1 Green.Ev. (15th Ed.) § 219; Wharton Crim.Ev. (9th Ed.) § 631; 2 Taylor Ev. (9th Ed.) § 872; 1 Bishop's New Crim.Proc. § 1217, par. 4.
These writers but express the result of a multitude of American and English cases, which will be found collected by the authors and editors either in the text or in notes, especially in the ninth edition of Taylor, second volume, tenth chapter, and the American notes, following page 588, where a very full reference is made to decided cases. The statement of the rule is also in entire accord with the decisions of this Court on the subject. Hopt v. Utah, (1883) 110 U. S. 574; Sparf v. United States, (1895) 156 U. S. 51, 156 U. S. 55; Pierce v. United States, (1896) 160 U. S. 355; and Wilson v. United States, (1896) 162 U. S. 613.
a maxim which in England was a mere rule of evidence became clothed in this country with the impregnability of a constitutional enactment."
There can be no doubt that, long prior to our independence, the doctrine that one accused of crime could not be compelled to testify against himself had reached its full development in the common law, was there considered as resting on the law of nature, and was imbedded in that system as one of its great and distinguishing attributes.
In Burrowes v. High Commission Court, (1616) Bulst. 49, Lord Coke makes reference to two decisions of the courts of common law as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, wherein it was decided that the right of a party not to be compelled to accuse himself could not be violated by the ecclesiastical courts. Whatever, after that date, may have been the departure in practice from this principle of the common law (Taylor on Evidence § 886), certain it is that, without a statute so commanding, in Felton's Case, (1628) 3 How.St.Tr. 371, the judges unanimously resolved, on the question being submitted to them by the King, that "no such punishment as torture by the rack was known or allowed by our law."
"That the confession before one of the privy council or a justice of the peace being voluntarily made, without torture, is sufficient as to the indictment on trial to satisfy the statute, and it is not necessary that it be a confession in court; but the confession is sufficient if made before him that hath power to take an examination."
"When the prisoner is arraigned, and demanded what he saith to the indictment, either he confesseth the indictment, or pleads to it, or stands mute, and will not answer."
"The confession is either simple, or relative in order to the attainment of some other advantage."
upon hearing of his indictment, without any other respect, confesseth it, this is a conviction; but it is usual for the court, especially if it be out of clergy, to advise the party to plead and put himself upon his trial, and not presently to record his confession, but to admit him to plead. 27 Assiz. 40."
"If it be but an extrajudicial confession, tho it be in court, as where the prisoner freely tells the fact, and demands the opinion of the court whether it be felony, tho upon the fact thus shown it appear to be felony, the court will not record his confession, but admit him to plead to the felony 'not guilty.' 22 Assiz. 71, and Stamf.P.C. lib. 2, c. 51, fol. 142b."
"But then, 1. Oath must be made either by the justice or coroner that took them, or the clerk that wrote them; that they are the true substance of what the informer gave in upon oath, and what the prisoner confessed upon his examination."
"2. As to the examination of the prisoner, it must be testified that he did it freely, without any menace or undue terror imposed upon him; for I have known the prisoner disown his confession upon his examination, and hath sometimes been acquitted against such his confession. . . ."
". . . But then this confession must be voluntary, and without compulsion; for our law in this differs from the civil law; that it will not force any man to accuse himself; and in this we do certainly follow the law of nature, which commands every man to endeavor his own preservation; and therefore pain and force may compel men to confess what is not the truth of facts, and consequently such extorted confessions are not to be depended on."
actually confesses he is guilty, or unadvisedly discloses the special manner of the fact, supposing that it doth not amount to felony where it doth, yet the judges, upon probable circumstances, that such confession may proceed from fear, menace, or duress, or from weakness or ignorance, may refuse to record such confession, and suffer the party to plead not guilty."
"The human mind, under the pressure of calamity, is easily seduced, and is liable, in the alarm of danger, to acknowledge indiscriminately a falsehood or a truth, as different agitations may prevail. A confession, therefore, whether made upon an official examination or in discourse with private persons, which is obtained from a defendant, either by the flattery of hope, or by the impressions of fear, however slightly the emotions may be implanted (vide O.B. 1786, page 387), is not admissible evidence; for the law will not suffer a prisoner to be made the deluded instrument of his own conviction."
to testify against himself, was in its essence comprehensive enough to exclude all manifestations of compulsion, whether arising from torture or from moral causes, the rule formulating the principle with logical accuracy came to be so stated as to embrace all cases of compulsion which were covered by the doctrine. As the facts by which compulsion might manifest itself, whether physical or moral, would be necessarily ever different, the measure by which the involuntary nature of the confession was to be ascertained was stated in the rule not by the changing causes, but by their resultant effect upon the mind -- that is, hope or fear -- so that, however diverse might be the facts, the test of whether the confession as voluntary would be uniform -- that is, would be ascertained by the condition of mind which the causes ordinarily operated to create. The well settled nature of the rule in England at the time of the adoption of the Constitution and of the Fifth Amendment, and the intimate knowledge had by the framers of the principles of civil liberty which had become a part of the common law, aptly explain the conciseness of the language of that Amendment. And the accuracy with which the doctrine as to confessions as now formulated embodies the rule existing at common law, and imbedded in the Fifth Amendment, was noticed by this Court in Wilson v. United States, supra, where, after referring to the criteria of hope and fear, speaking through Mr. Chief Justice Fuller, it was said: "In short, the true test of admissibility is that the confession is made freely, voluntarily, and without compulsion or inducement of any sort." 162 U. S. 162 U.S. 613, 162 U. S. 623.
of fact. Indeed, the embarrassment which comes from the varying state of fact considered in the decided cases has given rise to the statement that there was no general rule of law by which the admissibility of a confession could be determined, but that the courts had left the rule to be evolved from the facts of each particular case. 2 Taylor on Evidence § 8722. And, again, it has been said that so great was the perplexity resulting from an attempt to reconcile the authorities that it was manifest that not only must each case solely depend upon its own facts, but that even the legal rule to be applied was involved in obscurity and confusion. Green v. State, 88 Georgia 516; State v. Patterson, 73 Missouri 695, 705; State v. Matthews, 66 N.C. 106, 109.
The first of these statements but expresses the thought that whether a confession was voluntary was primarily one of fact, and therefore every case must depend upon its own proof. The second is obviously a misconception, for, however great may be the divergence between the facts decided in previous cases and those presented in any given case, no doubt or obscurity can arise as to the rule itself, since it is found in the text of the Constitution. Much of the confusion which has resulted from the effort to deduce from the adjudged cases what would be a sufficient quantum of proof to show that a confession was or was not voluntary has arisen from a misconception of the subject to which the proof must address itself. The rule is not that, in order to render a statement admissible, the proof must be adequate to establish that the particular communications contained in a statement were voluntarily made, but it must be sufficient to establish that the making of the statement was voluntary; that is to say, that, from causes which the law treats as legally sufficient to engender in the mind of the accused hope or fear in respect to the crime charged, the accused was not involuntarily impelled to make a statement when, but for the improper influences, he would have remained silent. With this understanding of the rule, we come to a consideration of the authorities.
justices of the peace were directed, on accusations of felony, to "take the examination of the said prisoner and information of them that bring him." In 1655, the judges directed that the examination of prisoners should be without oath (J.Kel. 2), and the reason of this rule, Starkie on Evidence (2d ed. p. 29), says, was that an examination under oath "would be a species of duress, and a violation of the maxim that no one is bound to criminate himself." The ruling of the judges in this regard was recognized in the statute of 7 Geo. IV. chap. 64, which, although requiring "information of witnesses" to be "upon oath," simply directed an "examination" of the accused.
"Having heard the evidence, do you wish to say anything in answer to the charge? You are not obliged to say anything unless you desire to do so, but whatever you say will be taken down in writing, and may be given in evidence against you upon your trial."
the further statement, in substance, by the magistrate or his clerk, that what the prisoner said would be taken down, and "would" be used for or against him at his trial was held by Coleridge, J., to be equivalent to saying that what the prisoner chose to say might be used in his favor at the trial, and to be a direct inducement to make a confession, rendering the statement incompetent as evidence. Like rulings were also made in cases where similar assurances that the statement of the prisoner would be used were made to him by a police officer. Reg. v. Morton, (1843) 2 Moo. & Rob. 514, and Reg. v. Furley, (1844) 1 Cox C.C. 76.
In cases where statements of one accused had been made to others than the magistrate upon an examination, differences of opinion arose among the English judges as to whether a confession made to a person not in a position of authority over the accused was admissible in evidence after an inducement had been held out to the prisoner by such person. Rex v. Spencer, (1837) 7 Car. & P. 776. It was finally settled, however, that the effect of inducements must be confined to those made by persons in authority, Reg. v. Taylor, (1839) 8 Car. & P. 734; Reg. v. Moore, (1852) 2 Den.C.C. 522, although, in the last cited case, while former precedents were followed, the court expressed strong doubts as to the wisdom of the restriction (2 Den.C.C. 527). There can be no question, however, that a police officer, actually or constructively in charge of one in custody on a suspicion of having committed crime, is a person in authority within the rule, and, as this is so well established, we will not consider the adjudicated cases in order to demonstrate it, but content ourselves with a reference to the statement on the subject made in Russell on Crimes, third volume, at page 501.
Many other cases in the English reports illustrate the application of the rule excluding statements made under inducement improperly operating to influence the mind of an accused person.
interrogator would take him before a magistrate, was held equivalent to stating that it would be better to confess, and to have operated to lead the prisoner to believe that he would not be taken before a magistrate if he confessed. Baron Hotham, after commenting upon the evidence, in substance said that the prisoner was hardly a free agent at the time, as, though the language addressed to him scarcely amounted to a threat, it was certainly a strong invitation to the prisoner to confess, the manner in which it had been expressed rendering it more efficacious.
In Cass' Case, (1784) 1 Leach 293, a confession induced by the statement of the prosecutor to the accused, "I am in great distress about my irons. If you will tell me where they are, I will be favorable to you," was held inadmissible. Mr. Justice Gould said that the slightest hopes of mercy held out to a prisoner to induce him to disclose the fact was sufficient to invalidate a confession.
"If you are guilty, do confess. It will perhaps save your neck. You will have to go to prison. If William H. [another person suspected, and whom the prisoner had charged] is found clear, the guilt will fall on you. Pray, tell me if you did it."
In Reg. v. Croydon, (1846) 2 Cox C.C. 67, saying: "I dare say you had a hand in it. You may as well tell me all about it." In Reg. v. Garner, (1848) 1 Den.C.C. 329, saying: "It will be better for you to speak out."
"The prisoner and witness being both in the police force, the prisoner, as the witness admitted, might have conceived himself bound to tell the truth; and the caution was not of that nature which should make the confession of the prisoner admissible."
In the leading case of Reg. v. Baldry, (1852) 2 Den.C.C. 430, after full consideration, it was held that the declaration made to a prisoner, who had first been cautioned that what he said "would" be used as evidence, merely imported that such statement "might" be used, and could not have induced in the mind of the prisoner a hope of benefit sufficient to lead him to make a statement. The cases of Reg. v. Drew, Reg. v. Harris, Reg. v. Morton, and Reg. v. Farley, heretofore referred to, were held to have been erroneously decided.
of the rule in those cases, which are all familiar to the judges and to the bar."
"A simple caution to the accused to tell the truth, if he says anything, it has been decided not to be sufficient to prevent the statement made being given in evidence; and although it may be put that, when a person is told to tell the truth, he may possibly understand that the only thing true is that he is guilty, that is not what he ought to understand. He is reminded that he need not say anything, but, if he says anything, let it be true. It has been decided that that would not prevent the statement's being received in evidence, by Littledale, J., in the case of Rex v. Court, 7 Car. & P. 486, and by Rolfe, B., in a case at Gloucester, Reg. v. Holmes, 1 Car. & K. 248; but, where the admonition to speak the truth has been coupled with any expression importing that it would be better for him to do so, it has been held that the confession was not receivable, the objectionable words being that it would be better to speak the truth, because they import that it would be better for him to say something. This was decided in the case of Reg. v. Garner, 1 Den.C.C. 329. The true distinction between the present case and a case of that kind is that it is left to the prisoner a matter of perfect indifference whether he should open his mouth or not."
"that if the threat or inducement was held out, actually or constructively, by a person in authority, it cannot be received, however slight the threat or inducement. "
In Reg. v. Cheverton, (1862) 2 F. & F. 833, a statement made by a policeman to a person in his custody that "you had better tell all about it; it will save you trouble," was held to operate as a threat or inducement sufficient to render what was said by the prisoner inadmissible.
In Reg. v. Fennell (1881) 7 Q.B.D. 147, the Court for Crown Cases reserved referred approvingly to the statement of the rule contained in Russell on Crimes, and, "upon all the decided cases," held inadmissible a statement made, induced by the prosecutor saying to the prisoner in the presence of an inspector of police: "The inspector tells me you are making housebreaking implements. If this is so, you had better tell the truth; it may be better for you."
"If these principles and the reasons for them are, as it seems impossible to doubt, well founded, they afford to magistrates a simple test by which the admissibility of a confession may be decided. They have to ask, is it proved affirmatively that the confession was free and voluntary? -- that is, was it preceded by any inducement to make a statement held out by a person in authority? If so, and the inducement has not clearly been removed before the statement was made, evidence of the statement is inadmissible."
After reviewing the evidence, and holding that, under the ruling of Pollock, C.B., in the Baldry case, it was immaterial whether the statements made by the chairman were calculated to elicit the truth, and intimating that they tended to lead the prisoner to believe that it would be better for him to say something, the opinion concluded with deciding that, "on the broad, plain ground that it was not proved satisfactorily that the confession was free and voluntary," the confession ought not to have been received.
Irish Court of Criminal Appeal, seven of the judges writing opinions, and the majority concluding, on a full consideration of the English and Irish authorities, that a policeman was not such an official as would render per se any confession elicited by his questioning the prisoner inadmissible, although the fact of his questioning became an important element in determining whether inducement resulted from the language by him used. The English authorities, however, referred to in the above note to Russell on Crimes, are later in date than Reg. v. Johnson, although they emanate from nisi prius courts, and not from appellate tribunals. Whatever be the rule in this regard in England, however, it is certain that, where a confession is elicited by the questions of a policeman, the fact of its having been so obtained, it is conceded, may be an important element in determining whether the answers of the prisoner were voluntary. The attempt on the part of a police officer to obtain a confession by interrogating has been often reproved by the English courts as unfair to the prisoner, and as approaching dangerously near to a violation of the rule protecting an accused from being compelled to testify against himself. Berriman's Case, (1854) 6 Cox C.C. 388; Cheverton's Case, (1862) 2 F. & F. 833; Mick's Case, (1863) 3 F. & F. 822; Reagan's Case, (1867) 17 L.T.(N. S.) 325; and Reason's Case, (1872) 12 Cox C.C. 228.
From this review, it clearly appears that the rule as to confessions by an accused (leaving out of consideration the rule now followed in England restricting the effect of inducements, according as such inducements were or were not held out by persons in authority) is in England today what it was prior to and at the adoption of the Fifth Amendment, and that, while all the decided cases necessarily rest upon the state of facts which the cases considered, nevertheless the decisions as a whole afford a safe guide by which to ascertain whether in this case the confession was voluntary, since the facts here presented are strikingly like those considered in many of the English cases.
that is, not produced by inducements engendering either hope or fear -- is settled by the authorities referred to at the outset. The facts in the particular cases decided in this Court, and which have been referred to, manifested so clearly that the confessions were voluntary that no useful purpose can be subserved by analyzing them. In this Court also it has been settled that the mere fact that the confession is made to a police officer, while the accused was under arrest in or out of prison, or was drawn out by his questions, does not necessarily render the confession involuntary, but, as one of the circumstances, such imprisonment or interrogation may be taken into account in determining whether or not the statements of the prisoner were voluntary. Hopt v. Utah, 110 U. S. 574; Sparf v. United States, 156 U. S. 51, 156 U. S. 55. And this last rule thus by this Court established is also the doctrine upheld by the state decisions.
"if, at the time it was made, the defendant was in jail or other place of confinement, nor where he was in custody of an officer, unless such confession be made in the voluntary statement of the accused, taken before an examining court in accordance with law; or be made voluntarily, after having been first cautioned that it may be used against him; or unless, in connection with such confession, he make statement of facts or of circumstances that are found to be true, which conduce to establish his guilt, such as the finding of secreted or stolen property, or instrument with which he states the offense was committed. "
In some of the States, it has been held that, where questions are propounded to a prisoner by one having a right to ask them, and he remains silent where from the nature of the inquiries, if innocent, reply would naturally be made, the fact of such silence may be weighed by the jury. See authorities collected in Chamberlayne's note to 2 Taylor on Evidence p. 5884, et seq.
Having stated the general lines upon which the American cases proceed, we will not attempt to review in detail the numerous decisions in the various courts of last resort in the several states treating of confessions in the divergent aspects in which that doctrine may have presented itself, but will content ourselves with a brief reference to a few leading and well considered cases treating of the subject of inducements, and which are therefore apposite to the issue now considered.
"You have got your foot in it, and somebody else was with you.
Now, if you did break open the door, the best thing you can do is to tell all about it, and to tell who was with you, and to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
"The suspicion is general against you, and you had as well tell all about it. The prosecution will be no greater. I don't expect to do anything with you. I am going to send you home to your mother."
"You had better own up. I was in the place when you took it. We have got you down fine. This is not the first you have taken. We have got other things against you nearly as good as this."
to tell the prosecuting witness all about it, and that the officer thought the prosecuting witness would withdraw the prosecution, or make it as light as possible. In State v. York, (1858) 37 N.H. 175, saying to one under arrest immediately before a confession: "If you are guilty, you had better own it." In People v. Phillips, (1870) 42 N.Y. 200, saying to the prisoner: "The best you can do is to own up. It will be better for you." In State v. Whitfield, (1874) 70 N.C. 356, saying to the accused: "I believe you are guilty. If you are, you had better say so. If you are not, you had better say that." In State v. Drake, (1893) 113 N.C. 624, saying to the prisoner: "If you are guilty, I would advise you to make an honest confession. It might be easier for you. It is plain against you." In Vaughan v. Commonwealth, (1867) 17 Gratt. 576, saying to the accused: "You had as well tell all about it."
"When Mr. Bram came into my office, I said to him: 'Bram, we are trying to unravel this horrible mystery.' I said: 'Your position is rather an awkward one. I have had Brown in this office, and he made a statement that he saw you do the murder.' He said: 'He could not have seen me. Where was he?' I said: 'He states he was at the wheel.' 'Well,' he said, 'he could not see me from there.'"
The fact, then, is that the language of the accused, which was offered in evidence as a confession, was made use of by him as a reply to the statement of the detective that Bram's co-suspect had charged him with the crime; and, although the answer was in the form of a denial, it was doubtless offered as a confession because of an implication of guilt which it was conceived the words of the denial might be considered to mean. But the situation of the accused, and the nature of the communication made to him by the detective, necessarily overthrow any possible implication that his reply to the detective could have been the result of a purely voluntary mental action; that is to say, when all the surrounding circumstances are considered in their true relations, not only is the claim that the statement was voluntary overthrown, but the impression is irresistibly produced that it must necessarily have been the result of either hope or fear, or both, operating on the mind.
that the statements of Bram were not made by one who, in law, could be considered a free agent. To communicate to a person suspected of the commission of crime the fact that his co-suspect has stated that he has seen him commit the offense, to make this statement to him under circumstances which call imperatively for an admission or denial, and to accompany the communication with conduct which necessarily perturbs the mind and engenders confusion of thought, and then to use the denial made by the person so situated as a confession, because of the form in which the denial is made, is not only to compel the reply, but to produce the confusion of words supposed to be found in it, and then use statements thus brought into being for the conviction of the accused. A plainer violation as well of the letter as of the spirit and purpose of the constitutional immunity could scarcely be conceived of.
"some of us here think you could not have done all that crime alone. If you had an accomplice, you should say so, and not have the blame of this horrible crime on your own shoulders."
imported a suggestion of some benefit as to the crime and its punishment as arising from making a statement.
"The law cannot measure the force of the influence used, or decide upon its effect upon the mind of the prisoner, and therefore excludes the declaration if any degree of influence has been exerted."
In the case before us, we find that an influence was exerted, and, as any doubt as to whether the confession was voluntary must be determined in favor of the accused, we cannot escape the conclusion that error was committed by the trial court in admitting the confession under the circumstances disclosed by the record.
Our conclusion that the confession was wrongfully admitted renders to unnecessary to pass on the serious question arising from the ruling of the trial court by which, in cross-examination, the accused was denied the right to ask the detective as to an article of personal property taken from the prisoner at the time the alleged confession was had. In other words, that the accused could not bring out, by way of cross-examination, everything which took place at the time of the alleged confession, but was compelled, in order to do so, to make the detective his own witness, and therefore be placed in the position where he could not impeach him. We are also, as the result of our conclusion on the subject of the confession, relieved from examining the many other assignments of error except in so far as they present questions which are likely to arise on the new trial.
We will now briefly consider the alleged errors of this character.
"In obedience to the said order of court, and to the venires issued thereunder, the following named grand jurors attended on the 15th day of October, A.D. 1896. On that day, the said grand jurors were duly impaneled as the grand jury for the October term of this Court, A.D. 1896. All of said grand jurors, being impaneled aforesaid, were duly sworn, except Grand Juror William Merrill, Junior, of West Newbury, who duly affirmed, twenty-one grand jurors being in attendance."
by the courts of the United States or the officers thereof. And for this purpose, the said courts may, by rule or order, conform the designation and impaneling of juries in substance to the laws and usages relating to jurors in the state courts, from time to time in force in such State. This section shall not apply to juries to serve in the courts of the United States in Pennsylvania."
"SECTION 6. When a person returned as grand juror is conscientiously scrupulous of taking the oath before prescribed, he shall be allowed to make affirmation, substituting the word 'affirm' instead of the word 'swear,' and also the words 'this you do under the pains and penalties of perjury,' instead of the words 'so help you God.'"
"In the construction of statutes, the following rules shall be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the general court or repugnant to the context of the same statute, that is to say: . . . Fourteenth. The word 'oath' shall include 'affirmation' in cases where, by law, an affirmation may be substituted for an oath."
The objection that the indictment recited that it was presented "upon the oath" of the jurors, when the fact was that it was presented upon the "oath and affirmation" of the jurors, is without merit. Waiving a consideration of the question whether, under the provisions of the statutes to which reference has been made, the word "oath" might not properly be construed as meaning either "oath" or "affirmation," the recital alluded to was purely formal, and, if defective, was open to amendment. The record disclosing the fact that all of the grand jurors were duly sworn except Grand Juror William Merrill, Jr., who was "duly affirmed," the defendant could not have been prejudiced by the form of the statement made in the indictment, and the defect, if any, was rendered harmless by the curative provisions of section 1025, Revised Statutes.
The further objection that neither in the indictment nor in the proof at the hearing of the pleas in abatement was it affirmatively stated or shown that Grand Juror Merrill, before being permitted to affirm, was proven to have possessed conscientious scruples against taking an oath, is practically concluded by the disposition made of the objection just passed upon, and is rendered nugatory by the terms of § 1025, Revised Statutes. Further, the mode of ascertaining the existence or nonexistence of such conscientious scruples was committed to the discretion of the officer who affirmed the juror, and such affirmation conclusively established that the officer had properly exercised his discretion. Commonwealth v. Fisher, 7 Gray 492; State v. Adams, 78 Maine 486.
The remaining assignments which we deem it proper to notice relate to the overruling of objections interposed to questions propounded to certain witnesses in the character of experts. Some of these objections were made to hypothetical questions asked a number of sailors, reciting the condition of things assumed to have been established by the evidence as existing about the time of the killing, viz., the speed of the Herbert Fuller, the condition of her sails, direction of wind, etc., and inquiry as to the effect it would have on the vessel if the wheelman had taken his hands off the wheel, and what effect would be produced by lashing the wheel under similar conditions. These questions were evidently intended to supplement the testimony of Brown, who swore that he stood with both hands on the wheel during the time between twelve and two o'clock, and, consequently, when the murders were committed. The questions were competent, as the testimony sought to be elicited was relevant to the issue. Aside from the testimony of Brown, the evidence against Bram was purely circumstantial, and it was clearly proper for the government to endeavor to establish, as a circumstance in the case, the fact that another person who was present in the vicinity at the time of the killing could not have committed the crime. The testimony sought to be adduced had this tendency, and the fact that it might operate indirectly to fortify the credit of such person as a witness in the cause could not affect its admissibility.
An objection to a question asked of a medical witness, whether, in his opinion, a man standing at the hip of a recumbent person, and striking blows on that person's head and forehead with an axe, would necessarily be spattered with or covered with some of the blood, was also properly overruled. We think the assumed facts recited in the question were warranted by the proof in the case, and that the evidence sought to be elicited from the witness was of a character justifying an expression of opinion by the witness, the jury, after all, being at liberty to give to the evidence such weight as in their judgment it was entitled to. Hopt v. Utah, 120 U. S. 430.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded, with directions to set aside the verdict and to order a new trial.
First, because I think the testimony was not open to objection. "A confession, if freely and voluntarily made, is evidence of the most satisfactory character." Hopt v. Utah, 110 U. S. 574, 110 U. S. 584, reaffirmed in Sparf v. United States, 156 U. S. 51, 156 U. S. 55. The fact that the defendant was in custody and in irons does not destroy the competency of a confession.
"Confinement or imprisonment is not, in itself, sufficient to justify the exclusion of a confession if it appears to have been voluntary, and was not obtained by putting the prisoner in fear or by promises."
Sparf v. United States, supra. See also Wilson v. United States, 162 U. S. 613, 162 U. S. 623.
"When Mr. Bram came into my office, I said to him, 'Bram, we are trying to unravel this horrible mystery.' I said, 'Your position is rather an awkward one. I have had Brown in this office, and he made a statement that he saw you do the murder.' He said, 'He could not have seen me. Where was he?' I said, 'He states he was at the wheel.' 'Well,' he said, 'he could not see me from there.'"
In this, there is nothing which by any possibility can be tortured into a suggestion of threat or a temptation of hope. Power simply stated the obvious fact that they were trying to unravel a horrible mystery, and the further fact that Brown had charged the defendant with the crime, and the replies of Bram were given as freely and voluntarily as it is possible to conceive.
It is strange to hear it even intimated that Bram, up to this time, was impelled by fear or allured by hope caused in the slightest degree by these statements of Power.
"I said, 'Now, look here, Bram, I am satisfied that you killed the captain from all I have heard from Mr. Brown. But,' I said, 'some of us here think you could not have done all that crime alone. If you had an accomplice, you should say so, and not have the blame of this horrible crime on your own shoulders.' He said, 'Well, I think, and many others on board the ship think, that Brown is the murderer; but I don't know anything about it.' He was rather short in his replies."
which Bram made to the question containing this supposed improper suggestion was this: "Well, I think, and many others on board the ship think, that Brown is the murderer; but I don't know anything about it." Can it for a moment be thought that such a reply was so significant that permitting it to go to the jury compels the putting at naught this protracted trial, and overthrowing the deliberate verdict of the 12 men who heard the evidence and condemned the defendant? With all respect to my brethren who are of a different opinion, I can but think that such a contention is wholly unsound, and that, in all this conversation with Bram, there was nothing of sufficient importance to justify the reversal of the judgment.
Again, there is a lack of any proper objection or exception; and, if there is any one thing which may be considered as settled in all appellate courts, it is that an error in the admission of testimony will not be considered unless there was a specific objection and exception at the trial.
"To authorize any objection to the admission or exclusion of evidence, or to the giving or refusal of any instructions to the jury, to be heard in this Court, the record must disclose not merely the fact that the objection was taken in the court below, but that the parties excepted at the time to the action of the court thereon."
Hutchins v. King, 1 Wall. 53, 68 U. S. 60; United States v. McMasters, 4 Wall. 680, 71 U. S. 682. "Our power is confined to exceptions actually taken at the trial." Railway Co. v. Heck, 102 U. S. 120. See also Moore v. Bank of Metropolis, 13 Pet. 302; Camden v. Doremus, 3 How. 515; Zeller's Lessee v. Eckert, 4 How. 289, 45 U. S. 297; Phelps v. Mayer, 15 How. 160; Dredge v. Forsyth, 2 Black 563; Young v. Martin, 8 Wall. 354; Belk v. Meagher, 104 U. S. 279; Hanna v. Maas, 122 U. S. 24; White v. Barber, 123 U. S. 392, 123 U. S. 419; Stewart v. Ranche Co., 128 U. S. 383; Anthony v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad, 132 U. S. 172; Block v. Darling, 140 U. S. 234; Bogk v. Gassert, 149 U. S. 17.
error in criminal cases; but the law is equally applicable to the latter.
"It is the duty of counsel seasonably to call the attention of the court to any error in impaneling the jury, in admitting testimony, or in any other proceeding during the trial, by which his rights are prejudiced, and, in case of an adverse ruling, to note an exception."
Alexander v. United States, 138 U. S. 353, 138 U. S. 355. "The general rule undoubtedly is that an objection should be so framed as to indicate the precise point upon which the court is asked to rule." Sparf v. United States, 156 U. S. 51, 156 U. S. 56; Holder v. United States, 150 U. S. 91; Tucker v. United States, 151 U. S. 164.
for certain purposes, to take advantage of it in the argument before the jury. Can it be possible that he may obtain this advantage and, having obtained and used it, insist that, because of such incompetent testimony, he is entitled to a reversal of the judgment against him? Wilson v. United States, 162 U. S. 613, 162 U. S. 624. Who shall say that this defendant, though at first objecting to any testimony respecting his statements, yet, after hearing what the witness said, did not prefer that such testimony remain, as it disclosed that, at the very first moment he was informed that Brown charged him with the crime, he protested that Brown was not in a position where he could see who did the killing? Indeed, for anything in this record to the contrary, he, when a witness in his own behalf, may have given the same version of the conversation, and admitted that his statements were voluntarily made. Who shall say that he did not wish to argue before the jury that the claim made of Brown's inability to see what took place was not an excuse suggested only by the exigencies of the trial, but was presented at the very first moment of the charge; and if he was willing to let the testimony remain, and have all the advantage which he could take of it in argument before the jury, can it be that he can now come to this Court, and say, "True, I did not object to this specific testimony, nor ask to have it stricken out, but it was incompetent," and obtain a reversal on the ground of its admission?
I dissent, therefore, first, because I think the testimony was properly received, and, secondly, because no motion was made to strike it out, and no exception taken to its admission.
THE CHIEF JUSTICE and MR. JUSTICE BROWN concur in this dissent.

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