State v. Marcum

— -The State appealed defendant’s acquittal on an O.M.V.I. charge assigning as error the court’s exclusion of a written statement “purporting to be a confession.” The State claimed the court erred because (1) “an accident report is admissible in a criminal case within the meaning of Section 321.271 of the 1950 Code of Iowa”, and (2) “the same is not in fact an accident report * # * but an admission against interest, and if such be an accident report the privilege is waived.” This statement started out as follows:

“To Whom It May Concern:

“I make this statement voluntarily, and of my own free…