United States v. Richard Carl Opdahl

The opinion of the majority is based on the proposition that whereas a confession related to the corpus delicti or fact of the commission of a crime which involves physical damage to person or property must be corroborated, there need in such a case be no link, outside the confession, between the injury and the person who admits having inflicted it. While it must be conceded that this court1 along with other appellate courts,2 following Supreme Court dicta,3 has tended to exclude the identity of the accused from the corroboration requirement, this exclusion has been criticized4 and I am far…