REDD v. STATE.
Opinion delivered February 20, 1897.
ACCOMPLICE—WHO IS.—A witness jointly indicted with two defendants on trial is an accomplice where the indictment against him is undisposed of, and there is evidence tending to connect him with the crime charged, though such evidence is meagre and unsatisfactory; and his testimony, uncorroborated, is insufficient to support a conviction of the defendants.
EVIDENCE—NON-EXPERT TESTIMONY.—Upon the question whether deceased was murdered or committed suicide, it being shown that he held a knife loosely in his hand when found dead, it was error to admit the evidence of non-experts that certain persons supposed to have committed suicide with knives, and whose bodies they afterwards saw, each held a knife tightly grasped in his hand, in the absence of other proof that they had committed suicide—even if such evidence were otherwise admissible.
SAME—WHEN PREJUDICIAL.—The error of admitting incompetent evidence tending to convict defendant of the crime of murder is not cured by proof of his extrajudicial confession, since the confession would not support a conviction unless corroborated by evidence that the death was caused by a criminal agency.
SAME.—The error of admitting non-expert testimony tending to prove that a suicide would be likely to hold the knife with which he killed himself tightly grasped in his hand is not cured by introducing expert testimony to the same effect.
INSTRUCTION—WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE.—It is error to instruct the jury that confessions, "when deliberately and voluntarily made, are deemed to be among the most effectual proofs of the guilt of the defendant."
