Opinion ID: 406499
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 13 Defendant seeks to have the judgment reversed and to be discharged on the grounds that his confession that he illegally entered the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325 was not sufficiently corroborated by other evidence. 14 In Smith v. United States, 348 U.S. 147, 75 S.Ct. 194, 99 L.Ed. 192 (1954), the Supreme Court set forth the standards governing corroboration of confessions. The Court held that all elements of the offense must be established by independent evidence or corroborated admission. Id. at 156, 75 S.Ct. at 199. The Court went on to say, however, that one available mode of corroboration is for the independent evidence to bolster the confession itself and thereby prove the offense through the statements of the accused. Under that standard, said the Court, the government may provide the necessary corroboration by introducing substantial evidence, apart from the accused's admissions, tending to show that the accused committed the offense. Id. at 157, 75 S.Ct. at 199. 15 This court has ruled that although a confession must be corroborated by independent evidence, the corroboration need not independently establish any element beyond a reasonable doubt, but must merely fortif(y) the truth of the confession. United States v. De Georgia, 420 F.2d 889, 890 n.3 (9th Cir. 1969). 16 Under these standards, the district court did not err in concluding that the confession was sufficiently corroborated. As the district court noted, the confession was corroborated by the facts, among others, that: (1) defendant was stopped in Oceanside, California which is some 40 miles north of San Diego; (2) he was stopped while traveling on a train in a northerly direction; (3) he was observed to be nervous and rigid; and (4) he had a one-way ticket to Fullerton, California which he was attempting to secret. These facts are sufficient at least to bolster, fortify, or tend to prove and corroborate the truth of his confession that he entered the United States illegally. In addition, we note the attempts to conceal identity by the giving of different false names each time he made a statement and the presence of his photograph in the INS file as additional facts corroborative of the confession of illegal entry.