Murray v. State
Supreme Court of Georgia
Criminal Law. Confessions. Corroboration. Tried before Judge Clark. Lee Superior Court. March Term, 1871. Murray, a negro, was indicted and tried for burning a gin-house. It was shown that the gin-house was consumed by fire, but how and by whom were the questions. It was one hundred and fifty yards from the dwelling of its owner, was unoccupied and had cotton seed and lint cotton stored therein. It was about a mile from Murray’s home.
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Criminal Law. Confessions. Corroboration. Tried before Judge Clark. Lee Superior Court. March Term, 1871. Murray, a negro, was indicted and tried for burning a gin-house. It was shown that the gin-house was consumed by fire, but how and by whom were the questions. It was one hundred and fifty yards from the dwelling of its owner, was unoccupied and had cotton seed and lint cotton stored therein. It was about a mile from Murray’s home. The evidence to fix the burning upon Murray was as follows: About a year before he had lived with the owner of the gin-house. When brought before the Court for…
1Opinion of the Court
McCay, Judge.
Section 3739 of the Code, declares that “a confession alone, uncorroborated by other evidence, will not justify a conviction.”" There is, as we understand it, really nothing here but the confession. There is not even the corpus delicti, since there is no evidence that the gin-house was not accidently burned. The looks of the prisoner and his apparent unwillingness to talk with the witness, as mentioned by him, is evidence so liable to misconstruction, as to be of hardly any weight. That the fire took place about the hour mentioned in the confession, is surely of no weight as…
2Cited by13 opinions
- Wilburn v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1914
- Bines v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1903
- Wrisper v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1941
- Logue v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1944
- Warren v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1922
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