Stein v. New York (346 U.S. 156)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 15, 1953 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 346 U.S. 156 · 73 S. Ct. 1077
- Decided
- June 15, 1953
- Term
- October Term 1952
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioners were found guilty of felony murder by a jury in Westchester County, New York, and sentenced to death. The New York Court of Appeals affirmed without opinion. We granted certiorari, because of questions raised by use of two confessions. The trial lasted over seven weeks and the record runs to more than 3,000 pages. Evidence proffered and heard, subject to rejection or acceptance in the judgment of the jury, included two written confessions by petitioners Cooper and Stein, together with testimony as to their incidental oral confessions and admissions. Each written confession implicated all three defendants and all objected to introduction of each confession on the ground that it was coerced. Wissner further moved as to each that, if Cooper’s and Stein’s confessions were admitted, all reference to him be stricken from them. The trial court heard evidence in the presence of the jury as to the issue of coercion and left determination of the question to the jury. Petitioners claim that such use of these confessions creates a constitutional infirmity which requires this Court to set aside the conviction. I. Facts About the Crime. The main office of Reader’s Digest is thirty-one miles from New York City, in the relatively rural area of northern Westchester County, near the town of Pleasantville. From this secluded…
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