United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Lyons v. Oklahoma, 322 U.S. 596 (1944)

Lyons v. Oklahoma

No. 433

Argued April 26, 1944

Decided June 5, 1944

322 U.S. 596

Syllabus

1. The instruction to the jury in this case fairly raised the question whether the challenged confession was voluntary, and did not deny to the defendant any right under the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 322 U. S. 601.

2. The Fourteenth Amendment does not forbid the use at a trial of an accused from whom a confession was coerced of a subsequent voluntary confession. P. 322 U. S. 603.

3. Where the evidence as to whether there was coercion is conflicting, or where different inferences may fairly be drawn from the admitted facts, the question whether a confession was voluntary is for the triers of the facts. P. 322 U. S. 602.

4. The evidence in this case warranted the inferences that the effects of the coercion which initiated an earlier confession by the accused had been dissipated prior to his second confession, and that the latter was voluntary, and the conviction will not be set aside as violative of due process. P. 322 U. S. 604.

5. The Fourteenth Amendment protects against such conduct of criminal trials as amounts to a disregard of that fundamental fairness essential to the very concept of justice and as necessarily prevents a fair trial, but does not protect against mere error in jury verdicts. P. 322 U. S. 605.

138 P.2d 142 affirmed.

Certiorari, 320 U.S. 732, to review the affirmance of a conviction for murder.

Page 322 U. S. 597