Leyra v. Denno, Warden (347 U.S. 556)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 1, 1954 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 347 U.S. 556 · 74 S. Ct. 716
- Docket
- No. 635
- Argued
- April 28, 1954
- Decided
- June 1, 1954
- Term
- October Term 1953
- Vote
- 5–3
- Majority author
- Justice Black
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Warren, Justice Black (wrote), Justice Douglas, Justice Clark, Justice Frankfurter
- Dissenting
- Justice Burton, Justice Reed, Justice Minton (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. Camilo Leyra, age 75, and his wife, age 80, were found dead in their Brooklyn apartment. Several days later petitioner, their son, age 50, was indicted in a state court charged with having murdered them with a hammer. He was convicted and sentenced to death, chiefly on several alleged confessions of guilt. The New York Court of Appeals reversed on the ground that one of the confessions, made to a state-employed psychiatrist, had been extorted from petitioner by coercion and promises of leniency in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 302 N. Y. 353, 98 N. E. 2d 553. Petitioner was then tried again. This time the invalidated confession was not used to convict him but several other confessions that followed it the same day were used. Petitioner objected to the admission of these other confessions on the ground that they were also coerced, but the trial court submitted to the jury the question of their “voluntariness.” The jury convicted and the death sentence now before us was imposed. The New York Court of Appeals, holding that there was evidence to support a finding that the confessions used were free from the coercive influences of the one previously given the psychiatrist, affirmed, Judge Fuld and the late Chief Judge Loughran dissenting. 304 N. Y. 468, 108 N. E. 2d 673. We denied certiorari.…
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