CRIMINAL LAW-CONFESSIONS AND DUE PROCESS

Petitioner was arrested on suspicion of robbery and the next day confessed the theft of a car owned by a person who had been found dead a month previous. On the following evening, after a four and one-half hour "interview" with two F.B.I. agents, he "broke down and confessed the killing." Other confessions were made the next day and finally, after a detention of five days from the day of arrest, petitioner was taken before a committing magistrate. He was found guilty of murder at a trial in which these confessions were used against him. He sued out a writ of habeas corpus alleging that use of the confessions as evidence was a denial of due process of law contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment because he was not promptly taken before a committing magistrate as required by law, he was held without advice of counsel, family, or friends, and the confessions were not voluntary.

Held, writ quashed. The confessions were made before the unnecessary detention; the fact that a confession is made without advice of counsel, family, or friends does not render its use a denial of due process, and the confessions in fact were voluntary. Mares v. Hill, (Utah 1950) 222 P. (2d) 811.