Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

No. They need independent corroboration that the crime was actually committed.

The prosecution must prove each and every element before they can use a confession or admission of a defendant. The amount of evidence is slight, however. All they need to do is put one a showing that all elements of a crime occurred and they are entitled to introduce a defendant's statement.

They can, however, use a defendant's statement to prove identity. Identity of the perpetrator is NOT part of the corpus.