Page:Brief for the United States, Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471 (1963).djvu/48

 whether a confession six months earlier had been lawfully or unlawfully obtained. The Court said:

We believe that it is the concept of an intervening independent act of a free will—the defendant, as a human being, can choose to speak or to remain silent—which furnishes the rationale for the rule (which pertains generally in state and federal courts) that a statement or confession voluntarily made during detention, without compulsion and without undue delay in arraignment, is not rendered inadmissible by the illegality of the original arrest. Smith v. United States, 254 F. 2d 751, 758–759 (C.A. D.C.), certiorari denied, 357 U.S. 937; United States v. Walker, 197 F. 2d 287, 289–290 (C.A. 2), certiorari denied, 344 U.S. 877; Gibson v. United States, 149 F.