Brief Fact Summary. This is an excerpt from an opinion of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which determined whether suicide was tantamount to a confession.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Suicide is a confession.
They added, that it was proper that a person of more legal experience should be assigned, who might render aid to the Court as well as to the prisoner.
View Full Point of LawIssue. Whether the suicide of a party, whose guilt implicates the defendant, is tantamount to that party’s confession?
Held. Suicide is a form of confession.
Discussion. The best way to understand this excerpt is that it is used in an advisory capacity. It goes into great detail about the thoughts of its author, who believes that no matter what, when a party is guilty they will be discovered-either in life, or by death; however, the passage really only shows those opinions.