{
  "id": 11274905,
  "name": "STATE v. HENRY DAVIS",
  "name_abbreviation": "State v. Davis",
  "decision_date": "1899-10-31",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "612",
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    "id": 9292,
    "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina"
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    "name": "N.C."
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      "cite": "12 N. C., 259",
      "category": "reporters:state",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T16:42:03.891072+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "STATE v. HENRY DAVIS."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Faiecuoti-i, C. J.\nThe defendant was indicted for larceny and receiving stolen goods of one Horton. It was proved that Horton\u2019s store had been robbed and burned. There was no evidence identifying the goods alleged to- have been stolen, and the prosecution failed on the first count. There was no evidence relied on by the State, except the declarations of the defendant, to sustain the second count. The competency of these declarations is the only question presented.\nThe defendant was arrested by J. II. Conrad, and whilst in his custody, Conrad said to him: \u201cThat he had worked up the case, and he had as well tell all about it.\u201d The defendant denied any knowledge of the alleged stolen articles, but after a while said that another person brought the goods to bis house. The house referred to was his mother\u2019s house.\nAn officer, with authority to arrest, discharges his duty by simply making the arrest, and it is no- part of his duties to provoke a prisoner to make any statement. The genius of our free institutions provides that admissions of a party should not be used against him unless made voluntarily. The common law looks with jealousy on such confessions, for, if made under the influence of hope or fear-, they furnish no test of the truth of the matter. They may be true, and they may be inspired by either hope or fear that such statements will be better for him in the near future.\n\u201cThe mind, under the pressure of calamity, is prone to acknowledge, indiscriminately, a falsehood or a truth, as different agitations may prevail; and therefore a confession obtained by the slightest emotion of hope or fear ought to be rejected.\u201d State v. Roberts, 12 N. C., 259.\nThe language that, \u201cI had worked up the case, and he had as well tell all about it,\u201d was well calcuated to agitate the mind of the defendant, an ignorant man, then a prisoner, and cause him to conclude that a prompt admission, true or false, would mitigate his punishment.\nThis case closely resembles State v. Whitfield, 70 N. C., 356, where the language of the prosecutor was: \u201cI believe you are guilty; if you are, you had better say so; if you are not, you had better say that:\u201d Held, that the confession was made under the influence of hope or fear, or both, and was inadmissible.\nIn 1 Greenleaf Evidence \u201cConfessions,\u201d the general question, is analyzed, with cited cases, and the principles above stated run through the chapter. He says: \u201cIt should be recollected that the mind of the prisoner himself is oppressed by the calamity of his situation, and that he is often influenced by motives of hope or fear to make an untrue confession.\u201d\nThe fact that the defendant at first denied, and after a while confessed, shows that some influence was operating on his mind. Roth statements could not be true.\nWe are of opinion that tbe confession, under tbe circumstances, was inadmissible.\nError.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Faiecuoti-i, C. J."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Mr. E. A. Johnson, for appellant.",
      "Attorney-General, for the State."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "STATE v. HENRY DAVIS.\n(Decided October 31, 1899.)\nConfessions by a Prisoner \u2014 To an- Officer \u2014 Under Influence of Hope or Pear.\n1. It is no part of the duty of an officer to extract confessions from a party under arrest \u2014 such conduct on his part reprehended.\n2. Confessions, to be admissible, must be ireely and voluntarily made; if obtained by operating upon the hopes or fears of the prisoner, they are inadmissible.\nINdiotmeot for larceny, with, a count for receiving, tried before Moore, 3at September Term, 1899, of the Superior Court of Wake County.\nThe store of one C. E. Horton, of Wake County, had been robbed and set on fire on Sunday, 16th July. A number of articles, principally provisions, corresponding in description with such as were in the store, but not identified as being the same, were found, the third day after the fire, at the house of defendant\u2019s mother, with whom he lived. They were found there by a witness, Beasley, who made the search. The defendant was arrested and indicted for larceny of the goods, and for receiving the same, knowing them, to' be stolen. Among other witnesses on the part of the State, at the trial, R. J. Conrad testified:\n\u201cI arrested the defendant near Elon College. Beasley had told me all about the articles found in the house. When I arrested defendant I offered him no inducement to make a statement, nor made any threats to procure the same. \u25a0 I did tell him that I had worked up the case, and he had as well tell all about, it. Tie first said that he did not know anything about the articles in the house. After a while he told me voluntarily that a little, short, black negro, whose name he did not know, and who would weigh about one hundred and thirty pounds, brought the goods found, to his house, Sunday morning; said if he called for the goods he would get them, and if not, he (the defendant) could pay him something for them.\n\u201cThis was on Wednesday, after the fire. Defendant left here the very next day after the fire.\u201d\nException by defendant that the declarations of the defendant, as recited by R. J. Conrad, were incompetent, being made under an inducement or threat held out by said Conrad, who then had the defendant under arrest.\nException overruled. The jury found the defendant guilty upon the count for receiving. Judgment and appeal.\nMr. E. A. Johnson, for appellant.\nAttorney-General, for the State."
  },
  "file_name": "0612-01",
  "first_page_order": 644,
  "last_page_order": 647
}