Estate Planning

Can I take that back?

By Hull & Hull LLP

While confessing your sins on your deathbed may seem like a noble gesture, you would be wise to make sure you're actually going to die first.

In a recent story reported in the UK's Independent website, a stroke victim's 'deathbed' confession to a murder proved premature.  James Brewer, a retired factory working living in Oklahoma, confessed to a decades old crime hoping that the confession would clear his conscience and "cleanse his soul" before he died.  During (what he believed to be) the final few moments of his life, he confessed to shooting a man dead in 1977 in Tennessee, while in a jealous rage fuelled by the suspicion that the victim had tried to seduce his wife.  He and his wife then fled to Oklahoma, where they began a new life under assumed names.  By all accounts they led a pretty normal, low profile life and were regular churchgoers and grandparents.

In a ironic twist of fate,  Mr. Brewer made a full recovery from the effects of his stroke after his confession.  He has now surrendered to police in Tennessee and may face the death penalty in that State.  Read further links to this story here and  here.

Sarah Hyndman Fitzpatrick

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on March 30, 2009 (boomark / email).