State v. Gray

For at least one hundred forty years, long before the insertion of the Fourteenth Amendment into the Constitution of the United States, it has been the well settled law in this State that when one is on trial for an alleged criminal offense, a confession or admission by him may not be admitted in evidence, over his objection, unless it was made voluntarily and understanding^, not induced through use by the police of “the slightest emotions of hope or fear.” It was so held in State v. Roberts, 12 N.C. 259. This Court has consistently followed and applied this basic principle since that…