# Downey v. People

> Supreme Court of Colorado · February 20, 1950 · 121 Colo. 307

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9574807

## Case

- **Full name:** Downey v. the People
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Colorado
- **Decided:** February 20, 1950
- **Citations:** 121 Colo. 307; 215 P.2d 892; 1950 Colo. LEXIS 312
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Hilliard
- **Judges:** Moore, Hilliard
- **Cited by:** 33 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9574807

## Opinion text

Mr. Chief Justice Hilliard
dissenting.
In the matter of the confession of guilt admitted in evidence, the record here, as I am persuaded, parallels the composite of the records in recent cases determined by the Supreme Court of the United States relative to confessions, cited in the court’s opinion, namely, Watts v. Indiana, 338 U. S. 49 , 69 Sup. Ct. 1347, 93 L. Ed. 1434 ; *325 Turner v. Pennsylvania, 338 U. S. 62 , 69 Sup. Ct. 1352, 93 L. Ed. 1443 ; Harris v. South Carolina, 338 U. S. 68, 69 Sup. Ct. 1354, 93 L. Ed. 1440 . The conclusions reached in those cases, as I think, should be regarded as controlling. In that view, and not pausing for extended exposition, I find it consistent to dissent. The details of the offense, much emphasized in the court’s opinion, are well calculated to cause even judges, for the nonce, to forget rules of criminal procedure, and justify on the enormity of the offending. It were well, I think, ever to keep in mind, that, “The history of liberty has largely been the history of observance of procedural safeguards.” McNabb v. United States, 318 U. S. 332 , 63 Sup. Ct. 608, 87 L. Ed. 819 .

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9574807. Public record. Not legal advice.