Chambers v. Florida facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Chambers v. Florida |
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| Argued January 4, 1940 Decided February 12, 1940 |
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| Full case name | Chambers et al. v. State of Florida |
| Citations | 309 U.S. 227 (more)
60 S. Ct. 472; 84 L. Ed. 716; 1940 U.S. LEXIS 911
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| Prior history | Conviction affirmed, Chambers v. State, 136 Fla. 568, 187 So. 156 (1939); cert. granted, 308 U.S. 541 (1939). |
| Holding | |
| Confessions compelled by police through duress are inadmissible at trial. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Black, joined by Hughes, McReynolds, Stone, Roberts, Reed, Frankfurter, Douglas |
| Murphy took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
Chambers v. Florida was an important case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1940. It looked at how much police pressure is allowed when getting a confession from someone accused of a crime. The Court decided that forced confessions go against a person's basic rights, called due process.
Contents
The Case: What Happened?
The case was argued on January 6, 1940. A lawyer named Thurgood Marshall represented four Black men. He was 31 years old at the time. These men had been found guilty of a serious crime in Florida.
The four men, including Mr. Chambers, were among many Black men arrested. They were accused of a crime against an elderly local man in Pompano Beach, Florida. People in the community were very upset. The police in Broward County felt a lot of pressure to solve the case quickly.
The men were taken to Miami for questioning. This was supposedly to keep them safe from an angry crowd. Then they were moved to Fort Lauderdale.
Held Without Rights
The state did not deny that the men were held without a lawyer. They were also not formally charged for a whole week. This formal charging process is called an arraignment.
During this time, police questioned them often. Sometimes, one man would be alone in a room with up to ten police officers. Back then, before a famous case called Miranda, people were not told they had the right to stay silent.
After a week of intense questioning, the four men confessed. They had denied involvement before. Based on these confessions, they were found guilty of a serious crime and faced severe penalties. The Supreme Court of Florida upheld their convictions.
The Supreme Court's Decision
On February 13, 1940, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision. Justice Hugo Black wrote the main opinion for the Court.
This case was one of many victories for Thurgood Marshall at the Supreme Court. The Court sided with the four men. It overturned their convictions, meaning they were no longer found guilty.
The Court found that the police and sheriff's officers had admitted to facts showing the confessions were forced. Because they were forced, the confessions could not be used as evidence in court. This case was one of the first times the Court said that even if there wasn't physical violence, unfair treatment could make evidence unusable.
Many of the tactics used in this case were common back then. These included not letting people contact anyone, holding them without charges, and denying them a lawyer during questioning. The Supreme Court later rejected these tactics in the 1966 case Miranda v. Arizona. Thurgood Marshall actually argued for the U.S. government in the Miranda case as the Solicitor General of the United States.
What Happened Next?
After the Supreme Court's decision, the case went back to the Florida courts. The charges against the men were eventually dropped. This happened because it was found that Black people had been unfairly kept off the grand jury. A grand jury is a group of citizens who decide if there is enough evidence to bring charges.
See also
- Brown v. Mississippi (1936)
- List of United States Supreme Court cases
