Decision
On February 13, 1940, the court delivered its ruling. The unanimous opinion of the court was delivered by Justice Hugo Black of Alabama.
This was Marshall's first of many triumphs in front of the nation's highest tribunal; the Court ruled in favor of the defendants, and overturned their convictions. The court found that on the facts admitted by the police and sheriff's officers, the confessions had clearly been compelled and were therefore inadmissible. It marked one of the first times that the court had accepted the contention that treatment short of physical violence should result in the suppression of evidence.
Several of the features of this case, such as not allowing the defendant to contact anyone, holding them without formal charges or arraignment, and denying them counsel during questioning were common tactics in law enforcement at the time and were eventually rejected by the court in Miranda v. Arizona (1966).
Read more about this topic: Chambers V. Florida
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