Title: Ex Parte Crowe

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

485 So. 2d 373 (1985)
Ex parte Coy Patrick CROWE.
84-399.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
December 13, 1985.
Rehearing Denied February 7, 1986.
John L. Carroll, Montgomery, for petitioner.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Rivard Melson and William D. Little, Asst. Attys. Gen., for respondent.
*374 PER CURIAM.
Defendant, Coy Patrick Crowe, was convicted in the Jefferson County Circuit Court of the capital crime of murder of a deputy sheriff while such deputy was on duty, pursuant to the 1975 Code of Alabama, § 13A-5-40(a)(5). After a sentencing hearing, the jury recommended that defendant be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The court then conducted its own sentencing hearing, and ordered that the advisory verdict of the jury was not the proper sentence in this case, and sentenced defendant to death by electrocution.
The Court of Criminal Appeals reviewed defendant's assertions of error, searched the record, and found no error adversely affecting defendant's rights. The court also found that the death penalty imposed on defendant was not excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases. Based upon these findings, the court upheld defendant's conviction and sentence of death.
We are of the opinion that, because there is no showing that defendant waived his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966), his in-custody response to questioning by FBI agents was erroneously admitted at trial. Therefore, defendant is entitled to a new trial.
The facts leading up to defendant's incriminating statement are taken from the testimony of FBI agents Stanley Carr and Gwin Hutfer, the two officers who arrested defendant at a Shoney's restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee. According to Carr, he and Hutfer apprehended defendant as he was attempting to elude them. The pertinent portion of Carr's testimony follows:
Agent Hutfer then testified as follows:
*376 Prior to the agents' being called as witnesses, a motion to suppress defendant's statement was made by defense counsel, and after a hearing outside the presence of the jury, the court denied the motion.
The Court of Criminal Appeals, in addressing the issue of the admissibility of defendant's statement, stated:
Crowe v. State, 485 So. 2d 351 (Ala.Crim. App.1984).
We cannot agree with the Court of Criminal Appeals' conclusion that there was no custodial interrogation in this case. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 100 S. Ct. 1682, 64 L. Ed. 2d 297 (1980), specifically to discuss the meaning of "interrogation" under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966). That Court stated:
Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S.  at 298-301, 100 S. Ct.  at 1688-90.
It is clear to us from our review of the record that defendant was subject to "interrogation" as defined in Rhode Island v. Innis. Defendant responded to a direct question posed by one of the FBI agents who arrested him, which seems to be just the type of express questioning that Rhode Island v. Innis says must invoke the procedural safeguards set forth in Miranda. At the very least, this questioning falls under the second part of the Rhode Island v. Innis definition: "any words or actions on the part of the police that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect." The agent might just as well have asked the obviously improper question"Did you kill that deputy"?as that would have sought the same type of incriminating answer as did the question actually asked. Based upon the foregoing, we are of the opinion that the Court of Criminal Appeals erred when it found that defendant was not subject to an interrogation, or its functional equivalent, in this case.
Having established that there was an interrogation, we must determine whether the requirements of Miranda were met in this case. Although there is proof that defendant was given his Miranda warnings prior to his incriminating statement, there is not one shred of evidence that he ever waived his rights under Miranda. Not only is there no evidence of waiver in the agents' testimony quoted herein, but we have searched the record, pursuant to Rule 45A, A.R.App.P., and have not found even a scintilla of evidence that defendant waived his right to remain silent or to have an attorney present during questioning. Moreover, when defendant arrived at the jail he was again read his rights, at which time he refused to sign the waiver of rights form and expressly stated that he did not intend to make any statements.
On the subject of waiver, the Court in Miranda v. Arizona, supra, stated:
384 U.S.  at 475, 86 S. Ct.  at 1628. The Court re-affirmed this position in North Carolina v. Butler, 441 U.S. 369, 99 S. Ct. 1755, 60 L. Ed. 2d 286 (1979), and said:
441 U.S.  at 373, 99 S. Ct.  at 1757.
In the case at bar, the state has failed to meet its burden of proof. Defendant's incriminating statement was a direct response to in-custody questioning by FBI agents, and, absent a showing that he waived his rights under Miranda, the statement was improperly admitted at trial. Thus, defendant is entitled to a new trial. Therefore, the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is reversed, and the cause is remanded to that court with instructions to order a new trial.
REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, JONES, SHORES, BEATTY and ADAMS, JJ., concur.
FAULKNER, J., dissents.
HOUSTON, J., not sitting.