Jennings v. Mississippi
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After being convicted by jury for statutory rape and resisting arrest, defendant Toney Jennings was sentenced to fifteen years: ten years to serve and five years suspended. Jennings received six months for resisting arrest. Jennings appealed the statutory-rape conviction. The Court of Appeals affirmed. The issue before the Supreme Court in this matter centered on whether the trial court erred in admitting Jennings’s arguably involuntary statement to police into evidence. After review, the Court concluded the State clearly failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jennings’s waiver and statement were voluntary, knowing, and intelligent, given the many problems surrounding the waiver and the "dearth" of evidence supporting its voluntariness. The Court reversed and remanded the case for a new trial and a new and reliable suppression hearing in which a specific determination regarding voluntariness could be made, and a record adequately developed.
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