Sims v. Georgia

Petitioner, a Negro, has been convicted of raping a white woman and has been given the death penalty. He raises five federal questions 1 for consideration by this Court, among which is that his Fourteenth Amendment rights to a fair trial were violated by the state trial judge’s failure to determine the voluntariness of his alleged confession prior to its admission into evidence before the jury, as required by the rule in Jackson v. Denno, 378 U. S. 368 (1964). The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Jackson was not applicable and affirmed petitioner’s conviction, Sims v. State, 221 Ga. 190,…