State v. Dick

Appellant contends that the trial court committed prejudicial error when it permitted the state to introduce an extra-judicial written confession of an alleged accomplice made in the presence of and implicating the accused after the alleged accomplice had refused to testify.

By permitting the state to read Daniels ’ confession to the jury as part of its case in chief, the jury was enabled to accept as substantive evidence the unsworn confession which had been denied by the declarant in the first trial, under oath.

Two views presently exist in this country in regard to the admissibility of an…