Chambers v. Mississippi
United States Supreme Court
410 U.S. 284 (1973)
- Written by Richard Lavigne, JD
Facts
Chambers (defendant) was accused of murdering a police officer during a confrontation between police and a hostile crowd. Several months after Chambers’ arrest, McDonald spoke with Chambers’ attorneys and gave a written confession to the murder. McDonald repudiated his confession at a subsequent preliminary hearing and was released from custody. At trial, Chambers called McDonald as a witness and had his confession admitted into evidence. After the prosecution cross-examined McDonald, Chambers moved to examine him as an adverse witness in order to challenge the credibility of his subsequent repudiations of his confession. The trial court denied his request for adverse examination. Chambers attempted to elicit testimony of three additional witnesses who would have presented evidence of conduct and statements tending to validate McDonald’s confession. The trial court excluded the admission of testimony from each witness on hearsay grounds. Chambers was convicted and appealed through the state courts. The state courts upheld his conviction and Chambers petitioned the United States Supreme Court for review.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Powell, J.)
Dissent (Rehnquist, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 807,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
