[903] 332 U.S. 596 (1948).
[904] Ibid. 600-601.—In a dissenting opinion, in which Chief Justice Vinson and Justices Jackson and Reed concurred, Justice Burton remarked that inasmuch as the issue of the voluntariness of the confession was one of fact, turning largely on the credibility of witnesses, the determination thereof by the trial judge and jury should not be overturned upon mere conjecture.—Ibid. 607, 615.
[905] 332 U.S. 742, 745 (1948).
[906] 335 U.S. 252 (1948).
[907] The Court also held that the procedure of Alabama, in requiring the accused to obtain permission from an appellate court before filing a petition in a trial court for a writ of error coram nobis was consistent with due process. Alabama was deemed to possess "ample machinery for correcting the Constitutional wrong of which the * * * [accused] complained."—Ibid. 254, 260-261.
[908] The accused, in his petition, neither denied his guilt nor any of the acts on which his conviction was based. He simply contended that because of fear generated by coercive police methods applied to him, he had concealed such evidence from his own counsel at the time of the trial and had informed the latter that his confessions were voluntary. His charges of duress were supported by affidavits of three associates in crime, none of whom claims to have seen the alleged beatings of the petitioner.—Ibid. 265-266.
[909] In a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Douglas and Rutledge concurred, Justice Murphy maintained that inasmuch as there was some evidence to substantiate the petitioner's claim, the latter should have been allowed a hearing in the trial court. According to Justice Murphy, a conviction based on a coerced confession is "void even though the confession is in fact true" and the petitioner is guilty. Justice Frankfurter criticized this dissenting opinion as having been "written as though this Court was a court of criminal appeals for revision of convictions in the State courts."—Ibid. 272, 275-276.
[910] 338 U.S. 49 (1949).
[911] 338 U.S. 62, 64 (1949).
[912] 338 U.S. 68 (1949).