Opinion ID: 1229128
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: corroboration of confessions

Text: At the guilt phase of trial, Watkins tendered instruction A: The court instructs the jury that a conviction cannot be based solely on the uncorroborated confession of the defendant. Watkins assigns error to the court's refusal of the instruction. In our view, the ruling was correct. The controlling principles are familiar. It is true that, as a general principle of law, an accused cannot be convicted solely on his uncorroborated extrajudicial admission or confession. The corpus delicti must be corroborated. Cleek v. Commonwealth, 165 Va. 697, 698, 181 S.E. 359, 360 (1935). It is not necessary, however, that there be independent corroboration of all the contents of the confession, or even of all the elements of the crime. The requirement of corroboration is limited to the facts constituting the corpus delicti. See Campbell v. Commonwealth, 194 Va. 825, 833-34, 75 S.E.2d 468, 473-74 (1953). Further, where, as here, the accused has fully confessed the crime, only slight corroborative evidence is necessary to establish the corpus delicti. Clozza v. Commonwealth, 228 Va. 124, 133, 321 S.E.2d 273, 279 (1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1230, 105 S.Ct. 1233, 84 L.Ed.2d 370 (1985). The confession is itself competent evidence tending to prove the corpus delicti, and all that is required of the Commonwealth in such a case is to present evidence of such circumstances as will, when taken in connection with the confession, establish the corpus delicti beyond a reasonable doubt. Cleek, 165 Va. at 699, 181 S.E. at 360. Further, corroborative facts supporting the corpus delicti may be furnished by circumstantial evidence as readily as by direct evidence. Epperly v. Commonwealth, 224 Va. 214, 229, 294 S.E.2d 882, 891 (1982). Indeed, we commented in Epperly that because circumstantial evidence is not subject to the human frailties of perception, memory, and truthful recital, it is often more reliable than the accounts of eyewitnesses. Id. at 228, 294 S.E.2d at 890. Examining the present record in light of those principles, we conclude that the facts constituting the corpus delicti of both crimes were abundantly corroborated. The condition of McCauley's mutilated body and the location of the bloodstains are in themselves sufficient evidence of the corpus delicti of a homicide. See Epperly, 224 Va. at 229, 294 S.E.2d at 891 (in homicide cases, the corpus delicti consists of proof (1) of the victim's death, and (2) that it resulted from the criminal act or agency of another). That same evidence of violent force, coupled with the evidence of bloodstains leading to the file cabinet drawer where cash had been kept, and the cash missing from the scene, constitutes sufficient proof of the corpus delicti of a robbery. See Williams v. Commonwealth, 234 Va. 168, 175, 360 S.E.2d 361, 366 (1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1020, 108 S.Ct. 733, 98 L.Ed.2d 681 (1988). Thus, the court did not err in refusing to exclude the confessions for lack of corroboration. Once admitted in evidence, the confessions, in conjunction with the corroborating circumstantial evidence, constituted overwhelming proof of Watkins' guilt of both crimes. [2] In these circumstances, was the trial court required to instruct the jury that a conviction may not be based upon the uncorroborated confession of the defendant? Having reexamined our holdings in Plymale v. Commonwealth, 195 Va. 582, 79 S.E.2d 610 (1954), and Wheeler v. Commonwealth, 192 Va. 665, 66 S.E.2d 605 (1951), we think not. If the court had found the corpus delicti to be uncorroborated outside the confessions, it would have been the court's duty to exclude the confessions and to strike the Commonwealth's evidence at the close of the prosecution case in chief. Instead, the court correctly ruled, as a threshold matter of law, that the confessions were sufficiently corroborated. The court therefore admitted them and denied Watkins' motion to strike. The court was under no obligation to submit that legal ruling for redetermination by the jury. The court's ruling was subject to appeal if erroneous, but at trial, it became the law of the case. We are unwilling to say that the jury was empowered to overrule the court upon the question whether the corpus delicti was independently corroborated. [3] Jury instructions must be based upon evidence; it is error to grant an instruction which is unsupported by evidence. LeVasseur v. Commonwealth, 225 Va. 564, 590, 304 S.E.2d 644, 658 (1983), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1063, 104 S.Ct. 744, 79 L.Ed.2d 202 (1984). Instruction A, requested by Watkins, describes his confessions as uncorroborated. As indicated above, no rational view of the evidence would justify that description. After the court had determined, as a matter of law, that the confessions were sufficiently corroborated to go to the jury, granting a jury instruction describing them as uncorroborated, or requiring the jury to decide whether they were corroborated or not, would indeed be incongruous. Accordingly, we hold that where the court has made a threshold determination that sufficient corroboration of the corpus delicti has been adduced, independent of a confession, to permit the confession to go to the jury, an instruction submitting the issue of corroboration to the jury is inappropriate. [4] To the extent that our holdings in Plymale v. Commonwealth, 195 Va. 582, 597, 79 S.E.2d 610, 618 (1954) and Wheeler v. Commonwealth, 192 Va. 665, 670-71, 66 S.E.2d 605, 608 (1951) are in conflict with this holding, those cases are overruled.