LEGAL PRINCIPLE: EVIDENCE LAW — Confessional Evidence — Voluntary Confession May Ground Conviction Notwithstanding Retraction
PRINCIPLE STATEMENT
A voluntary confession that is direct, positive, unequivocal, and amounts to admission of guilt can ground a conviction regardless of retraction. Retraction does not make it inadmissible or prevent the court from acting on it.
RATIO DECIDENDI (SOURCE)
Per Ejiwunmi, JSC, in Shande v. State (2005) NLC-1842004(SC) at p. 6; Paras B–D.
"A written confession of an accused person is relevant and should not be discarded or ignored simply because the accused had later retracted it or resiled from that voluntary statement. Once a confessional statement is proved to have been made voluntarily, as in this instant case and it is direct, positive, unequivocal and clearly amounts to an admission of guilt, it can still ground a conviction regardless of the fact that the maker resiled therefrom or retracted the same completely at the trial, as such retraction does not make it inadmissible or that the trial court should not act on it."
EXPLANATION / SCOPE
Retraction does not destroy a voluntary confession. If direct, positive, and unequivocal, it can ground conviction. The principle applies to criminal evidence.