opinion: BOLES, WARDEN v. STEVENSON.
  No. 298.
  Decided November 16, 1964.
  Charles Robert Sarver and Claude A. Joyce, Assistant Attorneys General of West Virginia, for petitioner. Daniel J. Meador for respondent.
  Per Curiam.
  The respondent, Stevenson, was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death in the Common Pleas Court of Cabell County, West Virginia. The conviction was affirmed on appeal by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. State v. Stevenson, 147 W. Va. 211, 127 S. E. 2d 638. Certiorari was denied here. 372 U. S. 938. He then filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court. Stevenson v. Boles, 221 F. Supp. 411. That court issued the writ on the ground that the State Supreme Court of Appeals used an erroneous standard for determining voluntariness and that an oral admission of guilt contained in the testimony of three state police officers was involuntary. The District Court ordered Stevenson’s release conditioned on the failure of the State to retry the defendant within a reasonable time, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Without reaching the voluntariness of the confession, it held that the defendant was denied a fair and effective resolution of the voluntariness issue at trial when the trial court failed to hold a preliminary examination on this issue and failed to submit it to the jury under appropriate instructions. We grant certiorari and modify the order of the Court of Appeals to conform to our subsequent decision in Jackson v. Denno, 378 U. S. 368.
  At Stevenson’s trial Officer Coleman testified for the State that he, and two other police officers, arrested the defendant and took him to the Atlantic Sea Food Store to show him the badly mutilated body of the victim. On cross-examination Coleman stated that the defendant strongly resisted efforts to confront him with the still undisturbed scene of the crime inside the building. Another of the officers gave the defendant a choice between entering the store or explaining what he knew about the crime. Coleman testified that the defendant then admitted committing the crime. At the conclusion of this testimony the defensé moved to strike the oral confession of guilt because it “does not comply with the rules covering the introduction of a confession in that he was not’ warned that any statement he made may and would be. used against him or any of the other requirements on- entering of a..confession.” This motion was overruled without comment and without a hearing on voluntariness. Subsequent motions to exclude the testimony of the other two officers in respect to the same challenged admission of guilt were similarly overruled without comment. After this confession was thrice admitted, the defendant took the stand in his own defense . and denied ever having made the admission to the officers.
  • Relying on this denial, the State Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that no preliminary examination was required in this case and that the confession was voluntary.
  The practice in West Virginia, when an objection to a confession is interposed, is to hold a preliminary hearing out of the presence of the jury at which the trial judge fully determines the coercion issue. State v. Vance, 146 W. Va. 925, 124 S. E. 2d 252. In light of this practice, we cannot ascertain on this record whether the trial judge declined to hold a hearing and declined to rule explicitly on voluntariness because he thought there could not be any issue in light of defendant’s not-guilty plea, because he thought the confession was in fact voluntary, or because he thought the objections were inadequate or untimely. Hence we do not know if thé-trial judge decided volun-tariness, one way or the other, and, if he did, what standard was relied upon. We think the procedures were not “fully adequate to insure a reliable and clear-cut determination of the voluntariness of the confession.” Jackson v. Denno, 378 U. S. 368, 391.
  . Hence we agree with the Court of Appeals that the writ should issue. Bui it does not follow that the State is required to order a new trial. As we held in Jackson, supra, where a state defendant has not been given an adequate hearing upon the voluntariness of his confession, he is entitled to a hearing in the state courts under appropriate procedures and standards designed to insure a full and adequate resolution, of this issue. “A state defendant should have the opportunity to have all issues which may be determinative of his guilt tried by a state judge or a state jury under appropriate state procedures which conform to the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U. S. 534, 547-548. Accordingly the judgment below is modified and the case is remanded to the District Court to allow the State a reasonable time to afford Stevenson a hearing or a new trial, failing which Stevenson is entitled to his release. As so modified, the judgment is affirmed.
  Mr. Justice Black would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals affirming the District Court’s judgment which ordered Stevenson’s release conditioned on the failure of the State to retry the defendant within a reasonable time.
  The respondent’s motion to dispense with the printing of the brief in opposition is granted.
choices: involuntary confession habeas corpus plea bargaining: the constitutionality of and/or the circumstances of its exercise retroactivity (of newly announced or newly enacted constitutional or statutory rights) search and seizure (other than as pertains to vehicles or Crime Control Act) search and seizure, vehicles search and seizure, Crime Control Act contempt of court or congress self-incrimination (other than as pertains to Miranda or immunity from prosecution) Miranda warnings self-incrimination, immunity from prosecution right to counsel (cf. indigents appointment of counsel or inadequate representation) cruel and unusual punishment, death penalty (cf. extra legal jury influence, death penalty) cruel and unusual punishment, non-death penalty (cf. liability, civil rights acts) line-up discovery and inspection (in the context of criminal litigation only, otherwise Freedom of Information Act and related federal or state statutes or regulations) double jeopardy ex post facto (state) extra-legal jury influences: miscellaneous extra-legal jury influences: prejudicial statements or evidence extra-legal jury influences: contact with jurors outside courtroom extra-legal jury influences: jury instructions (not necessarily in criminal cases) extra-legal jury influences: voir dire (not necessarily a criminal case) extra-legal jury influences: prison garb or appearance extra-legal jury influences: jurors and death penalty (cf. cruel and unusual punishment) extra-legal jury influences: pretrial publicity confrontation (right to confront accuser, call and cross-examine witnesses) subconstitutional fair procedure: confession of error subconstitutional fair procedure: conspiracy (cf. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure: conspiracy) subconstitutional fair procedure: entrapment subconstitutional fair procedure: exhaustion of remedies subconstitutional fair procedure: fugitive from justice subconstitutional fair procedure: presentation, admissibility, or sufficiency of evidence (not necessarily a criminal case) subconstitutional fair procedure: stay of execution subconstitutional fair procedure: timeliness subconstitutional fair procedure: miscellaneous Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure statutory construction of criminal laws: assault statutory construction of criminal laws: bank robbery statutory construction of criminal laws: conspiracy (cf. subconstitutional fair procedure: conspiracy) statutory construction of criminal laws: escape from custody statutory construction of criminal laws: false statements (cf. statutory construction of criminal laws: perjury) statutory construction of criminal laws: financial (other than in fraud or internal revenue) statutory construction of criminal laws: firearms statutory construction of criminal laws: fraud statutory construction of criminal laws: gambling statutory construction of criminal laws: Hobbs Act; i.e., 18 USC 1951 statutory construction of criminal laws: immigration (cf. immigration and naturalization) statutory construction of criminal laws: internal revenue (cf. Federal Taxation) statutory construction of criminal laws: Mann Act and related statutes statutory construction of criminal laws: narcotics includes regulation and prohibition of alcohol statutory construction of criminal laws: obstruction of justice statutory construction of criminal laws: perjury (other than as pertains to statutory construction of criminal laws: false statements) statutory construction of criminal laws: Travel Act, 18 USC 1952 statutory construction of criminal laws: war crimes statutory construction of criminal laws: sentencing guidelines statutory construction of criminal laws: miscellaneous jury trial (right to, as distinct from extra-legal jury influences) speedy trial miscellaneous criminal procedure (cf. due process, prisoners' rights, comity: criminal procedure)