Litigants: | Jackson v. Denno |
Arguedate: | December 9–10 |
Argueyear: | 1963 |
Decidedate: | June 22 |
Decideyear: | 1964 |
Fullname: | Nathan Jackson, Petitioner v. Wilfred Denno, Warden |
Usvol: | 378 |
Uspage: | 368 |
Parallelcitations: | 84 S. Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 |
Oralargument: | https://www.oyez.org/cases/1963/62 |
Prior: | United States v. Denno, 309 F. 2d 573 (2nd Cir. 1962) |
Holding: | 1. Under the New York procedure, the trial judge must make a preliminary determination of the voluntariness of a confession and exclude it if in no circumstances could the confession be deemed voluntary. 2. Petitioner is entitled to a state court hearing on the issue of the voluntariness of the confession by a body other than the one trying his guilt or innocence, but that does not necessarily entitle him to a new trial. |
Majority: | White |
Joinmajority: | Warren, Black, Douglas, Brennan, Goldberg |
Concurrence/Dissent: | Black |
Joinconcurrence/Dissent: | Clark (Part I) |
Dissent: | Clark |
Dissent2: | Harlan |
Joindissent2: | Clark, Stewart |
Overturned Previous Case: | Stein v. New York (1953) |
Jackson v. Denno,, was a United States Supreme Court case concerning the process of determining whether a criminal defendant's confession was voluntary or coerced. The case was argued on December 9 and 10, 1963, and decided on June 22, 1964. In a majority opinion authored by Justice Byron White, the Court held that the rule requiring the jury in a criminal trial to determine the voluntariness of a confession, which was in place in New York at the time, was unconstitutional. This decision overruled the Supreme Court's prior decision in Stein v. New York, a 1953 case in which the Court had upheld the same New York rule against a constitutional challenge.[1] [2]