Hubbard v. State

Decided November 18, 1905

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1905-11-18

Muuks; Judge; STATUMUNT BY THU COURT. . '■ At the July term, 1905, of the Randolph Circuit Court, appellant, Ed Hubbard, was indicted, tried and convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hanged. He is charged with killing one W. P. Burns by drowning him in Spring River, which is the boundary line, at the place where the crime is said to have been 'committed, between Randolph and Eawrence counties.

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently April 1949

4 state decisions

Relies on Meisenheimer v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

reversed · Decided 1905-11-18

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McCulloch, J.,

¶1(after stating the facts.) The court committed an error in giving instruction No. 7. By it the jury were told that they might' convict the defendant if they were satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt, by the confession alone, or in connection with all other testimony in the case, that he was guilty of the crime charged. The confession alone is insufficient to sustain a conviction. There must be other proof of the commission of the offense. Kirby’s Digest, § 2385.

¶2It is not essential that the corpus delicti be established by proof entirely independent of the confession, and the instruction to that effect asked by the defendant was properly refused. Meisenheimer v. State, 73 Ark. 407.

¶3The judgment is therefore reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial.