Beecher v. Alabama

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox SCOTUS case

|Litigants=Beecher v. Alabama

|ArgueDate=

|ArgueYear=

|DecideDate=October 23

|DecideYear=1967

|FullName=Beecher v. Alabama

|USVol=389

|USPage=35

|ParallelCitations=

|Prior=

|Subsequent=

|Holding=Eliciting a confession from a suspect while he was under the influence of morphine and recovering from a gunshot wound violated the Due Process Clause.

|PerCuriam=Yes

|Concurrence=Black

|Concurrence2=Brennan

|JoinConcurrence2=Warren, Douglas

|LawsApplied=

}}

Beecher v. Alabama, 389 U.S. 35 (1967), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that eliciting a confession from a suspect while he was under the influence of morphine and recovering from a gunshot wound violated the Due Process Clause.{{ussc|name=Beecher v. Alabama|volume=389|page=35|year=1967}}{{Cite book |last=Stephens, Jr. |first=Otis H. |title=The Supreme Court and Confessions of Guilt |year=1973 |pages=149–150}}

Description

Although the decision was unanimous and unsigned, the four concurring justices disagreed with describing this as a violation of the Due Process Clause. The four would have described it as a violation of the Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination protections, which had recently been incorporated against the states in Malloy v. Hogan.

References

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