EVIDENCE-FEDERAL CRIMINAL PROCEDURE-ADMISSIBILITY OF CONFESSION OBTAINED DURING ILLEGAL DETENTION

Petitioner was arrested without a warrant on suspicion of larceny. He was held without commitment for a period of thirty hours during which he was intermittently questioned but was not subjected to any form of physical coercion. At the end of this period, he signed a confession which was the basis for his conviction in the district court. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, following affirmation in the court of appeals, held, reversed.

The detention was unlawful as a violation of rule 5 (a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the confession thus obtained was inadmissible in evidence. Upshaw v. United States, (U.S. 1948) 69 S.Ct. 170.