Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

PDF

Evidence

Michigan Law Review

Murder

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Legal Context And Contributions Of Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment, William Burnham May 2002

The Legal Context And Contributions Of Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment, William Burnham

Michigan Law Review

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is of more than average interest to lawyers. The title perhaps says it all in terms of content. The chief protagonist, the murderer Raskolnikov, is a law student on a break from his studies. And the pursuer of the murderer is a lawyer, an examining magistrate. But the more subtle and more important legal aspects of Crime and Punishment concern the time period in Russian legal history in which the novel was written and is set. The 1860s in Russia were a time of tremendous legal change. Among other things, an 1861 decree emancipated the serfs …


Evidence-Confessions-Mcnabb Rule Not Applicable Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Harry T. Baumann S.Ed. Dec 1952

Evidence-Confessions-Mcnabb Rule Not Applicable Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Harry T. Baumann S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, detained on a vagrancy charge in Texas, voluntarily confessed to a homicide committed in Nebraska. Upon his return to the latter state, the defendant repeated his confession and was subsequently arraigned, having been in custody for twenty-five days. The confessions were introduced at the trial and a conviction of manslaughter followed. Defendant, failing to gain a reversal in the state court, sought review by the United States Supreme Court, charging that a failure to arraign the defendant promptly in breach of local statutes was a want of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. On certiorari, held, affirmed, Justices …


Evidence-Admissibility Of Confessions In Federal Courts Under The Mcnabb Rule, Harry T. Baumann S.Ed. Mar 1952

Evidence-Admissibility Of Confessions In Federal Courts Under The Mcnabb Rule, Harry T. Baumann S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, after proper arraignment on a charge of as· sault, was questioned intermittently about and confessed to a murder. This confession, introduced at the trial in the District Court of Alaska, was instrumental in convicting the defendant of the graver charge. The court of appeals reversed because of a failure to file the murder complaint within a reasonable time. On certiorari, held, the confession, made after proper detention on a lesser charge, was legal and admissible if given freely; but case affirmed as modified on other grounds. United States v. Carignan, 342 U.S. 36, 72 S.Ct. 97 (1951).


Evidence-Admissibility Of Uncommunicated Threats, Thomas Hartwell S. Ed. Jun 1951

Evidence-Admissibility Of Uncommunicated Threats, Thomas Hartwell S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree, following his killing of one Hunter as the outcome of a quarrel. The defendant had pleaded self-defense, contending that Hunter had appeared to threaten him. The defendant was the only witness to testify as to any aggression on the part of Hunter, while the four eyewitnesses to the killing all testified that the accused had attacked Hunter without warning and had fired upon Hunter's wife and child. Defendant's motion for new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence showing that Hunter had in his pocket an open knife, which …


Criminal Law-Proof Of The Corpus Delicti By The Use Of Extra-Judicial Confessions, Theodore Sachs Jun 1950

Criminal Law-Proof Of The Corpus Delicti By The Use Of Extra-Judicial Confessions, Theodore Sachs

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a physician, was accused of the murder of his cancer-ridden patient by the injection of 40 c.c. of air into a vein of the patient's arm shortly before her death. The defendant had noted on the patient's medical chart the fact of the injection and that of her death, apparently a few minutes later. He subsequently dictated the same facts to his nurse, and later made similar admissions to local enforcement authorities and others making such statements on the day of his arrest and immediately thereafter. At the trial, a pathologist, called as an expert witness on behalf of …


Criminal Law-Evidence-Silence To Accusation While Under Arrest As Admission Of Guilt, Colvin A. Peterson, Jr. Mar 1949

Criminal Law-Evidence-Silence To Accusation While Under Arrest As Admission Of Guilt, Colvin A. Peterson, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of murder. Before the victim died, defendant, handcuffed and in custody of police, had been taken to the hospital room where the victim lay. Eight witnesses were present at the time, and each testified that the victim pointed out the defendant as her assailant. At the trial the witnesses were permitted to testify that when accused of the crime, defendant stood by silently, saying and doing nothing, although it also appeared that he had been told by the police chief to ''keep your mouth shut." The prosecution capitalized upon defendant's silence as an admission of guilt. On …


Constitutional Law--Due Process-Federal Restrictions On The Use Of Confessions In State Criminal Proceedings, F. L. Adamson Jun 1948

Constitutional Law--Due Process-Federal Restrictions On The Use Of Confessions In State Criminal Proceedings, F. L. Adamson

Michigan Law Review

Undisputed evidence established that petitioner, a negro boy of fifteen, was arrested at about midnight, October 19, 1945 and taken to police headquarters. He was questioned by the police with no friend or counsel present. He was not informed of his right to counsel or of his right to refuse to answer. At about five in the morning, October 20, he confessed. He was then informed of his rights and his statement taken and transcribed. He was photographed by a newspaper photographer, and then placed in jail. On October 23 he was, for the first time, taken before a magistrate …


Evidence-Police Regulation By Rules Of Evidence, John Barker Waite Feb 1944

Evidence-Police Regulation By Rules Of Evidence, John Barker Waite

Michigan Law Review

The judicial rules of Evidence, said their great expounder, "were never meant to be an indirect process of punishment." Yet twice the Supreme Court has promulgated new rules of evidence for precisely that purpose. The rule that evidence is inadmissible, regardless of its relevance and materiality, if it was obtained by unreasonable search was first suggested by Justice Bradley, who wrote the majority opinion in Boyd v. United States in 1886. The other rule was voiced in 1943 by Justice Frankfurter, writing the majority opinion in McNabb v. United States. And each rule demonstrates the inherent evil of judicial …


Criminal Law And Procedure-Admissibility Of Evidence-Rule As To Determination Of Preliminary Question Of Fact Jan 1935

Criminal Law And Procedure-Admissibility Of Evidence-Rule As To Determination Of Preliminary Question Of Fact

Michigan Law Review

Following his arrest for murder, the defendant was held thirty-six hours before being arraigned for the purpose of obtaining a confession. On trial the defendant objected to introduction of the confession on the ground that it was involuntary, having been induced by wrongful detention and beating by the police. Held, failure, after due request, to instruct the jury that unnecessary delay in arraignment is prohibited by law and that such delay might be considered in determining whether or not the confession was voluntary was reversible error. People v. Alex, (N. Y. 1934) 192 N. E. 289.