United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Beecher v. Alabama, 408 U.S. 234 (1972)

Beecher v. Alabama

No. 71-6497

Decided June 26, 1972

408 U.S. 234

Syllabus

After this Court reversed petitioner's 1964 murder conviction on the ground that written confessions used as evidence in his trial were involuntary as the products of gross coercion, and thus violated due process, petitioner was reindicted, retried, and convicted after an oral confession had been admitted into evidence. That confession had been made to a hospital doctor one hour after petitioner's arrest, while he was in extreme pain from a gunshot wound and under the influence of morphine.

Held: Petitioner's oral confession was also invalid, having been the product of gross coercion and part of the same "stream of events" that necessitated invalidation of the written confessions.

Certiorari granted; 288 Ala. 1, 256 So.2d 154, reversed.