Page:Brief for the United States, Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471 (1963).djvu/22

 were made by an intoxicated man. Here, petitioner Toy, although knowing that the officers had found nothing of what they sought, deliberately and voluntarily sent them to Johnny Yee in order to divert suspicion from himself. It was Hom Way's accusation of Toy which caused Toy to send the officers to Yee's house, and Hom Way's accusation in no way stemmed from the illegal entry. Toy merely saw an opportunity to sidetrack the officers from Hom Way's accusation, and consciously made use of that opportunity. In short, he would now have the Court bar evidence that he himself deliberately uncovered.

Petitioners' confessions were corroborated by substantial additional evidence, and the confessions disclosed such possession of narcotics as served to raise the statutory presumption of guilty knowledge.

A. Corroboration of a confession requires only evidence that will tend to establish its trustworthiness, and does not demand evidence sufficient to establish the corpus delicti independently. The special problem with respect to reliance on a confession arises out of concern whether a particular confession may be the product of "the aberration or weakness of the accused under the strain of suspicion" (Opper v. United States, 348 U.S. 84, 90). But if facts are shown, by evidence other than the confession, demonstrating that the confession is not a fantasy warped by the aberration or weakness of the accused, then the finder of fact may properly attribute the confession to the familiar motivation of an accused