{
  "id": 8692807,
  "name": "STATE v. JARRATT WHITFIELD",
  "name_abbreviation": "State v. Whitfield",
  "decision_date": "1874-01",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "356",
  "last_page": "358",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "70 N.C. 356"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "N.C.",
    "id": 9292,
    "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 5,
    "name_long": "North Carolina",
    "name": "N.C."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T15:53:06.826178+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "STATE v. JARRATT WHITFIELD."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Peaeson, C. J.\nWe do not concur in the legal inference that, upon the facts found, the confession of the defendant was voluntary and therefore admissible as evidence.\nThe facts found are as follows :\nThe owner, a white man, had lost a hog the night before, and on the following morning, suspecting the defendant, went into his field in company with two other white men, where the defendant, a colored man in his employment, was at work, and telling Mm that the hog had been stolen, said to liiin, \u201cI believe you are guilty; if you are, you had better say so ; if yon are not, you bad better say that.\u201d Whereupon the defendant confessed the larceny. His Honor held, as a matter of legal inference, these facts do not show that the prisoner was under the influence of either hope or fear, and deeming the confession voluntary, admitted it as evidence.\n\"We hav-e this .case: The master, a white man, goes with two other white men into the field where his hireling, a negro, fls at wort. The master says, \u201c I believe you are guilty; if you are you had better say so.\u201d Here is fear excited by a direct charge made by the master, who had brought with him two other white men, and hope suggested by the assurance \u201c If you are guilty, you had better say so.\u201d The defendant is subdued and puts himself upon the mercy of the white men. True, the master adds, \u201cIf you are not, you had better say that,\u201d but this must be qualified by the fact that the master had just said, \u201c I believe you are guilty,\u201d and the inference is.\nIf you say that \u201d I will not believe you.\nIt is contrary to the genius of our free institutions, that any admissions of a party should be heard as evidence against him unless made voluntarily. The common 'law looks with jealousy upon anything that has the semblance of torture, and declares that no confession of guilt shall be heard in evidence unless made voluntarily ; for, if made under the influence of either hope or fear, there is no test' of its truthfulness. Nor can we lose sight of the fact that the moral effect of the supremacy of the white man has not- passed away. When an ignorant negro is charged by his employer, supported by two other white men, with having stolen a hog, and told if you .are guilty you had better say so, there is no guarantee of the truth of his admissions; probably they are true, but it may be that he gave way to fear, and under the illusion of the hope held out to him that it would be u better for him to confess\u201d made a confession contrary to the fact. Such is the abhorenee of the common law in respect to extorting confessions, that it is a settled rule, no confession of one charged with crime shall be admitted in evidence against him when it appears that the confession was made by reason of hope or fear. From the facts set out we are satisfied, as a matter of legal inference, that the prisoner made the confession under the influence of hope or fear, or both feelings, excited by the conduct and language of the parties who had him in their power.\nIn the case of the State v. Nero Davis, 63 N. C. Rep. 554, the facts and the legal inference are set out in such a confused manner, that the Court felt under great embarrassment, and after much hesitation, concurred in the ruling of his'Honor in the Court below.\nPer Curiam. Judgment reversed and venire de novo.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Peaeson, C. J."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "No counsel for defendant in this Court.",
      "Attorney General Hargrove, for the State,"
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "STATE v. JARRATT WHITFIELD.\nThe prosecutor, a white man, the employer of the' defendant, a- colored! man, g'oes to the field where the defendant is at work, with, two other white men, and tells him that he has lost a hog, at the same time saying, \u201cI believe yon are guilty \u2014 if you are, you had better say so; if you are not, you had better say that,\u201d and the defendant confesses his-guilt: Held, that the confession was made under the influence of hope or fear or both, and under the circumstances was inadmissible.\n(State v. Davis, 63 H. C. Bop. 578, cited and commented on.)\nINDICTMENT, for larceny, tried at the Pall Term, 1873, of Mast\u00edn Superior Court, before bis Honor, Judge Moore.\nOn the trial below, the defendant was convicted. Judgment and appeal.\nThe fasts- of the ease, and the questions raised upon the trial, are fully stated in the opinion of the Court.\nNo counsel for defendant in this Court.\nAttorney General Hargrove, for the State,\ncited and relied on the decision of the case of the State v. Noah Navis, 63 N. C. Rep. 578-,"
  },
  "file_name": "0356-01",
  "first_page_order": 372,
  "last_page_order": 374
}