People v. Williams

The defendant’s conviction for first-degree premeditated murder1 was vacated by the Court of Appeals because the prosecution failed to produce evidence, independent of the defendant’s confession, of the elements of premeditation and deliberation. The Court found that result to be required by the corpus delicti rule.

We disagree and reverse.

I

Defendant was charged with the first-degree murder of his next door neighbor, 79-year-old Frances Brattler. The information alleged that defendant had murdered the victim in a wilful, deliberate, and premeditated manner, or during the perpetration or…