Opinion ID: 1412869
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: james eugene waller's appeal

Text: James Eugene Waller states in his brief that the only question presented by him is whether his confession was voluntary as a matter of law, and if this Court finds that the confession obtained by this defendant appellant was free and voluntary, then his conviction must stand. This appellant relies upon State v. Anderson, 208 N.C. 771, 182 S.E. 643, which is patently distinguishable. In the Anderson case it was held the confession was not competent, because it appeared from the testimony of a State witness that the confession was obtained by falsely telling the confessor that his codefendants had talked, and that he had better confess. Here appellant Waller on 7 May 1964 voluntarily came to Durham Police Headquarters and gave himself up. Hight told him he had been implicated in these robberies by other persons who participated in these robberies, and did he want to make any statement in reference to these robberies he had been implicated in. There is not a scintilla of evidence in the record that such statement by Hight was false: in fact the record affirmatively shows the statement was true, because Leak and McNeil on 1 May 1964 had previously implicated appellant Waller. After this statement, appellant Waller made a confession. It appears from the record it was made freely and voluntarily. There is no evidence to the contrary. It was competent and properly admitted in evidence against him. In his trial we find no error.