Title: State v. McKissick

State: north-carolina

Issuer: North Carolina Supreme Court

Document:

157 S.E.2d 112 (1967) 271 N.C. 500 STATE of North Carolina v. Warren Walter McKISSICK, Jr. No. 260. Supreme Court of North Carolina. October 11, 1967. *114 J. Levonne Chambers, Charlotte, for defendant appellant. T. W. Bruton, Atty. Gen., Harrison Lewis, Deputy Atty. Gen., Robert G. Webb, Trial Atty., Wilson, Eugene A. Smith, Trial Atty., Raleigh, for the State. PLESS, Justice. The defendant assigned as error the admission of evidence regarding the identification of the defendant at a line-up at the police station and his courtroom identification based thereon. He urges that his constitutional rights secured by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Sections 11 and 17, of the North Carolina Constitution were violated. Mr. and Mrs. Neff went to the city hall four days after the robbery and there viewed a line-up with six persons. Both of them identified the defendant as being one of the robbers and also identified him at the trial. The defendant argues that in effect the exhibition of his person before the State's witnesses in the line-up required him to give evidence against himself. He cites the recent case of United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S. Ct. 1926, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1149, decided 12 June 1967, in support of his position. In effect, that case held that placing the defendant in a line-up of six men several weeks after his indictment for robbery was a violation of the defendant's constitutional rights because his counsel was not present at the time of the line-up. The case did not hold that the line-up itself constituted self-incrimination, since merely exhibiting his person for observation by witnesses and using his voice as an identifying physical characteristic involved no compulsion of the accused to give evidence of a testimonial nature against himself which is prohibited by the Fifth Amendment. The decision said: While the Wade case was not retroactive and therefore would not be controlling in this case, since the occurrence was some five months prior to the Wade case, the defendant argues that the reasoning of the case should be accepted in this one. In response, we call attention to the dissent of Justice Black who said: He later says: "* * * [R]equiring counsel at pre-trial identifications as an invariable rule trenches on other valid state interests. One of them is its concern with the prompt and efficient enforcement of its criminal laws. Identifications frequently take place after arrest but before indictment or information is filed. The police may have arrested a suspect on probable cause but may still have the wrong man. Both the suspect and the State have every interest in a prompt identification at that stage, the suspect in order to secure his immediate release and the State because prompt and early identification enhances accurate identification and because it must know whether it is on the right investigative track. Unavoidably, however, the absolute rule requiring the presence of counsel will cause significant delay and it may very well result in no pretrial identification at all. Counsel must be appointed and a time arranged convenient for him and the witnesses. Meanwhile, it may be necessary to file charges against the suspect who may then be released on bail, in the federal system very often on his own recognizance, with neither the State nor the defendant having the benefit of a properly conducted identification procedure. "Nor do I think the witnesses themselves can be ignored. They will now be required to be present at the convenience of counsel rather than their own. Many may be much less willing to participate if the identification stage is transformed into an adversary proceeding not under the control of a judge. Others may fear for their own safety if their identity is known at an early date, especially when there is no way of knowing until the lineup occurs whether or not the police really have the right man." The case of Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S. Ct. 1967, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1199, was decided June 12, 1967 by a divided Court, the same day as the Wade case. It deals with the identification of an accused person by his accuser in the absence of his attorney. Recognizing the significance of the two opinions (Wade and Denno), it said: The Court's opinions say that while a line-up is not unconstitutional per se, that without the defendant's attorney present, it isbut that this wrong, illegal as it is, is only so tomorrownot today! A constitutional right enacted almost two centuries ago, and with no change or amendment, has been suddenly and belatedly found violatedin the futurebut not in the past! *117 To get to the mechanics of an attorney's presence at a line-up, what is his function or authority? Is he empowered to forbid his client to appear, or to speak, or to gesture? If he does, is his client to obey, and thus to defeat the purpose of the line-up? And if the attorney objects to any feature of the line-up, who shall rule upon it? The jailer, detective or police sergeant? And upon an adverse ruling shall the accused, upon failure to comply, be subject to contempt proceedings? If so, when, and before what tribunal? On the other hand, if the attorney cannot interpose objections nor instruct his client, what purpose does he serve? If he sees a wrong done his client, must he withdraw as counsel and become a witness? The above questions are not facetious they are just sensible and practical. But they unanswerably demonstrate the unrealistic results of the opinions in the Wade and Denno cases. A fair line-up, composed of several men of the general appearance of the suspect is as fair a way of identifying the guilty as can be devised. There is no suggestion or intimation as to which is the guilty person. And it is only natural for the victim to seek punishment of the perpetrator of the wrong. He is motivated by one of the greatest forces in human nature: to see that his wrongdoer, not somebody else, is punished. If a line-up is fraudulently composed, the defendant can give his attorney this information for the purpose of cross examination. But if the attorney is present and has to become a witness, he can only give the information to his successor who, too, can only cross examine about it. The Wade and Denno decisions can only be interpreted as requiring a full-time, twenty-four-hour-a-day, court-appointed lawyer on full duty to represent the rights of a suspect. In the event of a one-man robbery where the description of the robber might fit three or four persons in the vicinity, three admittedly innocent persons of the four suspects could be arrested with probable cause at eleven o'clock on a Friday night. A judge to appoint counsel is not usually available neither are attorneys, if they can avoid it. but under these opinions, the victim of the rape or robbery cannot release the three innocent suspects by declaring that one is the perpetrator. The remaining innocent ones must be kept in prison at least overnight, or over the weekend, until a judge can be found to appoint counsel, and counsel can be found to accept appointmentnot only to identify the alleged guilty, but to release the admittedly and uncharged innocent. The defendant further excepts to the admission of the photograph of the line-up as violative of his rights under the constitutional sections referred to earlier. The photograph was properly identified and entered into evidence for the purpose of illustrating the testimony of the witness. State v. Norris, 242 N.C. 47, 86 S.E.2d 916; State v. Chavis, 231 N.C. 307, 56 S.E.2d 678; State v. Gardner, 228 N.C. 567, 46 S.E.2d 824; Stansbury, North Carolina Evidence § 34; 1 Strong, North Carolina Index, Criminal Law § 43; 11 A.L.R.2d 895. Although the defendant objected to the questions identifying the picture, he did not ask that its admission be restricted, and without such request, his exception is not good. State v. Cade, 215 N.C. 393, 2 S.E.2d 7. The defendant's interests were protected by the Court when the jury was told that the photograph was received only for the purpose of "corroborating" the witness and only to the extent that it does corroborate the witness. This instruction is not correct since photographs are competent for the purpose of illustrating the testimony of the witnesses; but inasmuch as the instruction at least limited the photograph, we do not consider the use of the word "corroborate" instead of "illustrate" as constituting substantial error. *118 The remaining exceptions asserted by the defendant are that his questions seeking to prove the reputation of the defendant and his mother for truth and veracity were not allowed. The Court sustained the objections to them and in doing so was correct. Reputation for particular traits of character is not permissible. A witness can only testify to the general character of a person. 1 Strong, North Carolina Index, Criminal Law § 80; State v. Sentelle, 212 N.C. 386, 193 S.E. 405. It is also noted that the answers which would have been given to these questions are not supplied. Since we have no way of knowing whether the proposed answers would have been favorable or unfavorable to the defendant, or whether they would have included incompetent and irrelevant statements, these exceptions are overruled. With full respect for the amenities, we think it proper to voice our disagreement with the Wade and Denno decisions and to point out their fallacies. We do not question the intentions of the five justices who made them. The other four members of the Court either dissented or did not fully concur. In our opinion, the reasoning of the dissenting opinions seems to us more practical than the opinion of the Court. We respect and admire the wisdom of our predecessors. Our almost two-centuries-old Constitution has not been fundamentally changedcertainly not in the Bill of Rights contained in the first ten amendments, but the construction of them has within the past few years. When any court or justice makes an interpretation which is not in conformity with those of John Marshall, Edward Douglas White, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Howard Taft or Charles Evans Hughes, it is subject to scrutiny. And by whom? Is any court or group in better position to do so except the highest courts of the states with their guaranteed authority? North Carolina was hesitanteven reluctantto ratify the United States Constitution. It refused to do so until the Bill of Rights was added, and the most important of these was the Tenth Amendment which provides: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." We must respectfully say that in our opinion this wise and vital provision of the Constitution has not had due consideration. The defendant has had a fair trial in which there was No error. BABBITT and SHARP, JJ., concur in the result.