Ashcraft v. Tennessee, 327 U.S. 274 (1946)

327 U.S.
274
66 S.Ct. 544
90 L.Ed. 667
ASHCRAFT et al.
v.
STATE OF TENNESSEE.
No. 381.
Argued Feb. 6, 7, 1946.
Decided Feb. 25, 1946.
Rehearing Denied March 25, 1946.
See 327 U.S. 817, 66 S.Ct. 815.

Messrs.James F. Bickers and Grover W. McCormick, both of Memphis,
Tenn., for petitioners.
Mr. Nat Tipton, of Nashville, Tenn., for respondent.
Mr. Justice BLACK delivered the opinion of the Court.
Mrs. Zelma Ashcraft was murdered in Shelby County, Tennessee. The

petitioner Ware was convicted for the murder. The petitioner Ashcraft, husband
of the deceased, was convicted for being an accessory before the fact. The
Supreme Court of Tennessee affirmed the convictions. We reversed the
judgment as to Ashcraft, vacated it as to Ware, and remanded the case to the
Supreme Court of Tennessee for further proceedings not inconsistent with our
opinion. Ashcraft v. Tennessee, 322 U.S. 143, 64 S.Ct. 921, 88 L.Ed. 1192. The
State Supreme Court then ordered the case remanded to the Criminal Court of
Shelby County with the same directions as to further procedure. The petitioners
were again convicted and the State Supreme Court affirmed.
Our reversal of Ashcraft's first conviction was on the ground that his conviction
resulted from a trial so conducted as to deprive Ashcraft of due process of law
in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. At that t ial the state had been
permitted to introduce in evidence an alleged confession which had been
obtained from Ashcraft after thirty-six hours continuous grilling by
investigating officers, who were holding him incommunicado in the County

jail. This alleged confession was in large part written but Ashcraft had neither
written nor signed it. Ware's conviction had also rested on a confession, the
admission of which as evidence he had challenged as a denial of due process.
Without passing on the Constitutional question raised by Ware, we vacated the
judgment against him for other reasons stated in our opinion. In the joint trial of
both petitioners which resulted in the judgment now before us, the state again
introduced Ware's confession. His objection to it based on the due process
clause was overruled. Before reaching the issues raised by Ware, we shall
dispose of the questions which Ashcraft now raises.
3
In our first opinion we pointed out in detail alleged incriminatory admissions

used to convict Ashcraft and the circumstances under which he had made them.
In summary those statements and circumstances were these. On a Saturday at
7:00 P.M., nine days after his wife was found dead, officers went to Ashcraft's
home and took him to a fifth-floor county jail room. There he was held without
rest or sleep until 7:00 o'clock Monday morning, or 36 hours. During the entire
time Ashcraft was subjected to a constant barrage of questions and charges.
According to the officers' testimony he, for about 28 hours, consistently denied
any knowledge about, or complicity in, the crime. The officers swore, however,
that after 11 P.M. Sunday night Ashcraft finally confessed that he knew who
killed his wife, but at the same time denied that he had done it. According to
this testimony Ashcraft said that Ware had come to his home before daylight,
just as Mrs. Ashcraft was getting in an automobile to take a journey; that he
watched Ware force Mrs. Ashcraft to drive the automobile away from home
with Ware accompanying her; that Ashcraft, after making slight but ineffective
protests, went back to his room, later went to work, and that he made no report
to the officers but kept his knowledge secret because he was afraid of Ware.
Later on the Sunday night that Ashcraft was being interrogated in the jail, a
court reporter was summoned and he, according to the evidence, took down
complete confessions of guilt given both by Ware and Ashcraft. The reporter
completed transcription of his notes about 7:00 o'clock Monday morning.
These transcribed notes were offered as to both the petitioners in the first trial.
Witnesses at that trial, including Ashcraft's doctor, also swore that both
Ashcraft and Ware had been caused to strip for complete physical
examinations. The only apparent purpose of this was to counteract any later
claim by Ware or Ashcraft that their alleged confessions were the product of
physical mistreatment.
At an early stage in the new trial, resulting in the conviction we are now
reviewing, the prosecuting attorney announced that he intended to use this jail
evidence again, 'about everything but the confession.' And that was done. The
witnesses for the state in the first and the second trials were the same.
Construing our mandate as prohibiting only the admission of the written
unsigned confession, the trial judge allowed the jury to listen to testimony
narrating everything else that took place during the entire 36 hours Ashcraft
was questioned with no one present but his inquisitors and those summoned by
them to buttress their future evidence.
5
An inspection of the record shows beyond any peradventure of doubt that the
testimony used in the last trial showing what took place during Ashcraft's
examination might well have had the same practical effect on the jury the
written unsigned confession might have had, had it been introduced. For the
circumstances leading up to it were narrated in detail both with reference to
Ware and Ashcraft. Even the doctor who examined are reported not only on
Ware's physical condition but also testified in the same breath about his
examination of Ashcraft.
Respondent claims that this testimony did not harm Ashcraft and that Ashcraft's
supposed statement that he knew who killed his wife was exculpatory. In fact,
in the context of this case, that statement was the strongest possible evidence
against Ashcraft, who was charged with having been an accessory before the
fact. For ten days following his wife's death, Ashcraft had purported to help the
officers in their efforts to solve the crime, and for the first twenty-eight hours of
his jail interrogation he had not only stoutly maintained his own innocence
whenever it was questioned, but had also denied any knowledge whatever as to
the identity of the murderer. To admit knowledge of the murder and of who
committed it after these protestations by him would for most people be the
equivalent of a confession of guilty participation in advance of the crime.
Wilful concealment of material facts has always been considered as evidence of
guilt. And statements denying guilt followed by a confession of knowledge of
who the guilty person was may carry the strongest implications of a guilty
knowledge. Cf. Bram v. United States, 168 U.S. 532, 562, 18 S.Ct. 183, 194, 42
L.Ed. 568. This is particularly true where a husband admits that he has, against
the strongest pressures, deliberately concealed the identity of his wife's
murdered for ten days.
We see no relevant distinction between introduction of this statement and the

unsigned alleged confession, except the possibility that the admission of this
longconcealed knowledge was perhaps a more effective confession of guilt than
the written unsigned alleged confession would have been. All the reasons given
for reversal of the judgment against Ashcraft in the first case, which we need
not repeat, apply with equal force here.
The state has asked that if Ashcraft's case is reversed we follow the same
course as to Ware that we did in the first case, and vacate the judgment against
him. For this reason, as well as the reasons given in our former opinion, we do
not pass on the Constitutional question raised by Ware concerning his alleged
confession, but vacate the judgment of the Supreme Court of Tennessee
affirming Ware's conviction.
We need not now decide other questions that have been argued except one
contention mentioned below.1
10
The judgment against petitioner Ashcraft is reversed and that against petitioner
Ware is vacated. Both cases are remanded to the State Supreme Court for
further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. It is so ordered.
11
Judgment against Ashcraft reversed; judgment against Ware vacated.
12
Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER joins in this opinion on the basis of the decision
in Ashcraft v. Tennessee, 322 U.S. 143, 64 S.Ct. 921, 88 L.Ed. 1192.
13
Mr. Justice JACKSON took no part in the consideration or decision of this

case.
The petitioner Ashcraft contends that in the oral argument before this Court,
when the first conviction was being challenged, the state's attorney admitted
that the confession was the only evidence against Ashcraft, and since we
mentioned this fact in our opinion, our mandate and the state Supreme Court's
mandate, which adopted our mandate, in effect forbade a new trial of petitioner.
We do not think our mandate lends itself to such an interpretation. As to the
State Supreme Court's mandate, that Court has construed it by affirming
petitioners' second convictions. The state Court's construction of its own
mandate is final.

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Ashcraft v. Tennessee, 327 U.S. 274 (1946)

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327 U.S.

See 327 U.S. 817, 66 S.Ct. 815.

Mrs. Zelma Ashcraft was murdered in Shelby County, Tennessee. The

investigating officers, who were holding him incommunicado in the County

In our first opinion we pointed out in detail alleged incriminatory admissions

We see no relevant distinction between introduction of this statement and the

Judgment against Ashcraft reversed; judgment against Ware vacated.

Mr. Justice JACKSON took no part in the consideration or decision of this

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