State v. Ellis

Defendant was charged and convicted of murder in the first degree, and his punishment assessed at life imprisonment. The indictment alleged that he killed one Edna Ellis, with a razor in the city of St. Louis on November 4, 1920. His defense was an alibi. After the usual motions he has appealed, contending that a confession obtained from him by the police and used against him in the trial was not voluntary, and that without such confession there was insufficient testimony to sustain the conviction.

In the matter of the sufficiency of the testimony to convict, without the use of the alleged…