Robert S. James was the name used by a barber born Major Raymond Lisenba, who was convicted in Los Angeles County of the murder of his wife in August 1935 and executed at San Quentin in 1942. The case is remembered in law more than in crime history. His appeal produced Lisenba v. California, decided by the US Supreme Court on December 8, 1941, a ruling on what a state may do before it uses a confession at trial.
Two deaths appear in the record, three years apart and in two states. The death of his wife in California in 1935 led to the indictment, trial and conviction. The death of an earlier wife in Colorado in 1932 was placed before the jury as evidence of a similar prior act. He was never charged with it, and no court has found that he caused it.
The United States Reports print the petitioner's name as Robert S. James, the name he used, and the case caption prints Lisenba. A catalog record of executions kept by the University at Albany spells the surname Lisemba and gives the first names as Major James. Los Angeles Magazine, in a 2017 account of the case, gives the birth name as Major Raymond Lisenba. He was indicted, tried and executed as James.
Little of his early life is on record. Los Angeles Magazine reports that he was born in Alabama to a poor sharecropper family and that he married at least five times; the figure is the magazine's, and the court opinions mention only two wives, the one who died in 1932 and the one who died in 1935, along with a living wife whose existence made an early ceremony invalid. The Albany record lists him as a barber, aged in his forties at the time of execution.
The only account of the Colorado death in the court record is the evidence the State offered at trial. The Supreme Court summarized it this way: a former wife of James was injured in an accident on Pikes Peak in 1932, recovered, and died afterward at Colorado Springs. James collected double indemnity on her life. The opinions do not name her.
The trial court admitted this evidence over the defense's objection, on the theory that similar earlier acts could be shown to establish intent, design and system. After the State rested, defense counsel asked for a recess to take depositions in Colorado. The judge refused because the showing was insufficient. The US Supreme Court later held that the Fourteenth Amendment left California free to set its own rules of relevance, and that the denial of the recess was within the trial judge's discretion.
No Colorado proceeding against James is on record. The 1932 death is therefore an attributed event, put to a jury as a prior act, and not a conviction.
The Supreme Court's opinion names the 1935 victim as Mary E. Busch, later called Mary James. James met her in March 1935. About a month later they went through a marriage ceremony that was not valid, because James still had a living wife. After that earlier marriage was annulled, a lawful ceremony followed. While they were engaged, insurance on her life was arranged, with James as beneficiary under double-indemnity policies for accidental death.
She died on August 5, 1935, in Los Angeles County; Los Angeles Magazine places the death in La Canada. The State's theory at trial was that James planned to marry, insure his wife, bring about her death so that it looked accidental, and collect the benefits.
After her death the insurers refused to pay double indemnity. One suit settled, and the renewed activity on the claims led to a new investigation. The investigators' first steps are not on record.
On Sunday, April 19, 1936, James was arrested on a separate charge and taken to the District Attorney's offices. He was questioned in relays through that night and through Monday, April 20, until about 3 a.m. on Tuesday. The dissent in the Supreme Court later counted the first stretch of questioning as roughly 42 to 48 hours. James made no incriminating statement in those days. On April 21 he was booked, arraigned and committed on the separate charge. His attorney saw him at the arraignment and again on April 25, and advised him not to answer questions without counsel present. From April 21 to May 1, the opinion says, no one claimed he was questioned.
On May 1, 1936, Hope was arrested and gave a statement. On Saturday, May 2, James was confronted with Hope and asked whether he had anything to say. He answered, "Nothing." He was then taken from the jail for further questioning at the District Attorney's office. He asked for his attorney, who was out of town, and for another attorney, who was not summoned. The questioning went on into the night, and a stenographic statement was finished at about 3 a.m. on May 3. The Court observed that it differed substantially from Hope's account and moved responsibility toward Hope.
On May 6, 1936, James and Hope were indicted for the murder of James's wife on August 5, 1935. Hope pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment. James pleaded not guilty and was tried in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. The jury convicted him of murder and he was sentenced to death.
Hope testified for the State as the accomplice. James later argued that this testimony was false and had been induced by threats and promises of leniency, and affidavits from Hope after the trial said the same. The US Supreme Court found no adequate showing of a corrupt bargain with Hope, and said that a comparison of his trial testimony with the affidavits raised serious doubts about their truth.
Before the confessions went to the jury, the trial judge heard testimony from the State and the defense on whether they were voluntary and ruled that they were. The jury was told to disregard them unless it found them voluntary. The date of the verdict and the length of the trial are not on record.
The California Supreme Court affirmed the judgment on March 21, 1939, with two judges dissenting. On rehearing it reaffirmed on October 5, 1939, in People v. Lisenba, 14 Cal.2d 403, 94 P.2d 569, adopting and amplifying its earlier opinion. James then filed a second rehearing petition that raised the Fourteenth Amendment for the first time. It was denied on November 3, 1939, and the Chief Justice allowed an appeal and certified that the denial had passed on the federal claims. Separately, a habeas corpus petition filed on October 31, 1939 was denied without prejudice on November 9, 1939.
The US Supreme Court took the appeal and the habeas case as Nos. 4 and 5. The first judgment was an affirmance by an equally divided Court, reported at 313 U.S. 537. The Court then granted a rehearing (313 U.S. 597), heard argument on October 14 and 15, 1941, and decided the case on December 8, 1941. Justice Roberts wrote the opinion. Justice Black dissented, joined by Justice Douglas.
The Court disposed of the lesser claims in turn. It called the claim that police had discriminated against James, so as to deny equal protection, frivolous and without proof in the record. It left the rules on corroboration of an accomplice to the state courts. It held that the admission of the 1932 evidence and the refusal of a recess raised no federal question. It would not find that the exhibits shown to the jury made the trial unfair.
The central question was the confessions. The Court said the officers' conduct broke California law, which required a prisoner to be taken promptly before a magistrate and barred holding him incommunicado and denying him counsel. "Like the Supreme Court of California," it wrote, "we disapprove the violations of law involved in the treatment of the petitioner." But a state-law violation did not settle the constitutional question. The Court described the aim of due process as "to prevent fundamental unfairness in the use of evidence, whether true or false," and said that to find a denial it must find that the absence of fairness "fatally infected the trial." It accepted the state courts' findings where the evidence conflicted, unless they lacked support, and it examined the record for itself. It also wrote that James showed "a self-possession, a coolness, and an acumen throughout his questioning and at his trial." It concluded that it could not hold that the illegal conduct of the California officers had produced coerced confessions, and ended: "The judgments are affirmed."
Justice Black's dissent said: "I believe the confession used to convict James was the result of coercion and compulsion." He relied on the officers' own admissions of prolonged questioning in relays, on the missing sleep, and on the denial of his request for counsel on May 2, and he cited Chambers v. Florida.
The ruling was cited soon afterward. In Ashcraft v. Tennessee (1944), the Court named Lisenba as authority for its duty to examine such claims independently, and a footnote read the two cases together: "Taken together, the Bram and Lisenba cases hold that a coerced or compelled confession cannot be used to convict a defendant in any state or federal court."
James was executed at San Quentin on May 1, 1942, according to the University at Albany's catalog record, which lists the offense as murder of a wife in the first degree. Los Angeles Magazine gives May 2 and describes his execution as the last of its kind in California.
The 1932 death. The courts treated it only as evidence of a prior act. No Colorado charge, trial or verdict is on record, and it is not a conviction.
Date of execution. The Albany record gives May 1, 1942; Los Angeles Magazine gives May 2.
The plea. The US Supreme Court records a plea of not guilty. Los Angeles Magazine says he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Number of marriages. Los Angeles Magazine says at least five; the court opinions name only the wives linked to the two deaths and one living wife.
Other deaths. Some popular accounts attribute further deaths to him. None appears in a court opinion.
Alabama: born Major Raymond Lisenba, according to Los Angeles Magazine.
1932: an earlier wife is injured in an accident on Pikes Peak and dies afterward at Colorado Springs; James collects double indemnity.
March 1935: James meets Mary E. Busch.
About April 1935: a ceremony that is not valid, because James has a living wife; a lawful ceremony follows after the earlier marriage is annulled.
August 5, 1935: Mary James dies in Los Angeles County.
April 19, 1936: arrested on a separate charge; questioned in relays to April 21.
May 1, 1936: Hope arrested and gives a statement.
May 2 to 3, 1936: James is questioned and gives a recorded statement.
May 6, 1936: James and Hope indicted for the murder; Hope pleads guilty and receives life imprisonment.
Los Angeles County Superior Court: James convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
March 21, 1939: California Supreme Court affirms, two judges dissenting.
October 5, 1939: California Supreme Court reaffirms on rehearing (14 Cal.2d 403).
November 3 and 9, 1939: second rehearing petition denied; habeas petition denied without prejudice.
October 14 and 15, 1941: reargument in the US Supreme Court.
December 8, 1941: Lisenba v. California, 314 U.S. 219; judgments affirmed, Black and Douglas dissenting.
May 1, 1942: executed at San Quentin.