Title: Dickerson v. State

State: indiana

Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court

Document:

276 N.E.2d 845 (1972)
Clifton Willie DICKERSON, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Indiana, Appellee.
No. 770S148.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
January 5, 1972.
*846 Daniel A. Roby, Thomas L. Ryan, Fort Wayne, for appellant.
Theodore L. Sendak, Atty. Gen., for appellee.
HUNTER, Judge.
This is an appeal by Clifton Dickerson from a judgment in the Allen Circuit Court convicting him of rape. Appellant waived a jury trial, and the cause was tried before the Honorable Ralph R. Blume, Special Judge, on March 6, 1970. Upon conviction, appellant was sentenced to the Indiana Reformatory for a term of not less than two (2) years nor more than twenty-one (21) years.
The sole issue presented on this appeal concerns the admission of certain statements into evidence which were made by appellant to the police during interrogation prior to arrest. Appellant contends that it was necessary to advise him of his constitutional rights prior to the interrogation as required by Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, and that the warnings actually given by the police were inadequate to meet the Miranda standard. Therefore, it is contended by appellant that the statements obtained by the police should have been excluded at trial.
The events occurring prior to the interrogation, as revealed by the record, are as follows: On May 21, 1968, the Fort Wayne, Indiana, Police Department received a complaint for rape against the appellant. The following day, at the Fort Wayne Police Station, Robert Brunkhart, a Fort Wayne policeman, happened to see the appellant, who was present at the station on other business. The uncontradicted testimony of appellant at trial reveals that Brunkhart called to him and said, "There's a complaint on you. Someone's filed a complaint on you about rape." Officer Brunkhart further stated, "I'd like to talk to you. You're not under arrest." Appellant consented to the request and followed Brunkhart to the interrogation room. Prior to the interrogation, appellant was presented with a printed form which was used by the Police Department to advise an individual of his constitutional rights. Appellant was asked to read the form, and, if he understood it, "to sign same." Appellant read the form, asked no questions, and signed a waiver of his constitutional rights.
*847 The printed form which was presented to appellant reads, in pertinent part, as follows:
Brunkhart then proceeded to question appellant in regard to the complaint. Appellant admitted having been with the victim on the night the rape was allegedly committed, but he denied that he sexually assaulted her. At trial, appellant's statements made during the interrogation were admitted into evidence over objection.
Before going to the issue of whether the warnings given to appellant were adequate to advise him of his constitutional rights, we must first decide whether it was necessary to give them in the first place. More specifically, we must determine whether appellant was in custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way.
The State contends that since appellant's presence at the station was not requested by the police, his presence there was wholly voluntary. Further, due to the fact that appellant was expressly told he was not under arrest and freely consented to the interrogation, the State takes the position that it was unnecessary to advise him of his constitutional rights prior to the interrogation. We do not agree.
It is true that appellant was not required to be present at the station on the day in question. However, appellant had gone there for personal reasons, wholly unrelated to this crime. He had certainly not gone to the police station to volunteer information or to be questioned concerning his commission of a crime. Appellant was stopped in the hallway and informed that a complaint had been filed against him. Although he was not placed under formal arrest, the officer expressed the desire to talk with appellant. Appellant consented and was led to the interrogation room for questioning. It is readily apparent that the interrogation at the police station was initiated by Officer Brunkhart. Thus it cannot be seriously contended that appellant was a "volunteer" in this matter. Furthermore, the circumstances under which the interrogation was conducted indicate that this was much more than a casual inquiry into the possibility of a crime. The complaint for rape had been filed the previous day. Officer Brunkhart was aware of the nature of the alleged crime, the identity of the alleged victim, and he knew that the victim had identified the appellant as the *848 assailant. It is apparent that the investigation had focused on appellant.
Although appellant was informed that he was not under arrest, it is abundantly clear that officer Brunkhart wanted to question him. We believe that an interrogation, initiated by the police and conducted in the compelling atmosphere of the interrogation room at the police station, at a time when the investigation had focused on the accused, constitutes circumstances which would indicate a significant deprivation of freedom so as to require the interrogating officers to advise the suspect of his constitutional rights. Apparently, Officer Brunkhart was of the same opinion because he presented appellant with the printed form prior to conducting the interrogation.
Appellant contends that the printed form advising him of his constitutional rights was misleading due to the language, "We have no way of giving you a lawyer but one will be appointed for you, if and when you go to court and the court finds that you are a pauper." It is argued that the above statement qualifies the statements immediately preceding it in the rights form which, in effect, state that a pauper has the right to have appointed counsel present during the interrogation.
In Jones v. State (1969), Ind., 252 N.E.2d 572, this Court determined that a rights form, identical in language to the form used in the instant case, adequately informed the suspect of his constitutional rights. It is appellant's contention, however, that Jones v. State, supra, was overruled by our later decision in Goodloe v. State (1969), Ind., 252 N.E.2d 788. We do not agree.
In Goodloe v. State, supra, we found that the warnings given were inadequate in that the police failed to expressly advise the accused of her right to have an attorney prior to and during the interrogation. In Goodloe, the arresting officer testified that he advised the accused as follows:
In holding that the above warning was inadequate, this Court stated:
The defects found in Goodloe are certainly not present in Jones. The printed rights form contains language which clearly and expressly states that the accused has the right to counsel both prior to and during the interrogation. Therefore, appellant's contention that Jones v. State, supra, has been overruled is without merit.
In Jones v. State, supra, we adopted the following guidelines set out in Coyote v. United States (10th Cir.1967), 380 F.2d 305, to be used in determining whether the words used are adequate to inform the accused of his constitutional rights:
This Court is of the opinion, as we were in Jones, that the language contained in the rights form is adequate to inform an accused of his constitutional rights. Some of the language objected to by appellant is certainly unnecessary, but we do not find that this language tends to confuse or qualify any of the necessary language contained in the form.
However, having determined that the language contained in the rights form is adequate, it does not necessarily follow that the appellant was adequately advised of his constitutional rights and that he knowingly and intelligently waived them. In Miranda v. Arizona, supra, the court stated:
In its attempt to meet its burden of showing that the appellant knowingly and intelligently waived his constitutional rights, the State produced a signed waiver. A signed waiver is not conclusive however, and this Court is not precluded from reviewing all of the evidence in the record relating to this issue.
At trial, on direct examination, Officer Brunkhart testified as follows:
Officer Brunkhart's uncontradicted testimony reveals that appellant was merely presented with the rights form, told to read it, and then to sign it if he understood it. Brunkhart did not orally advise appellant of his constitutional rights, nor did he make any attempt to ascertain whether appellant understood the printed form. Moreover, it was misleading to instruct appellant to sign the rights form "if he understood it."
This Court is of the opinion that the above procedure is inadequate to comply with the requirements set forth by Miranda v. Arizona, supra. The interrogation was conducted at the police station in a formal manner. Officer Brunkhart should have given appellant a clear explanation of his constitutional rights, and then determined whether appellant clearly understood them. Appellant should not have been instructed to sign the form if he understood it, but rather should have been informed that he would be signing a waiver of his rights and that he should sign it only if he desired to answer questions at that time without the presence or advice of an attorney. A signature obtained with the instructions given by Officer Brunkhart is clearly not sufficient to indicate a knowing and intelligent waiver. To hold otherwise would be to place the entire burden of understanding his constitutional rights on the accused, and additionally, to rely solely on the accused to clarify the contradictory instructions given by the police officer. Furthermore, we would be imposing this burden in a case where the police officer neglected to ascertain whether the appellant could actually read.
In Jones v. State, supra, the accused was orally advised of his constitutional rights in addition to being permitted to read the printed form. The printed form itself was actually read to the defendant. The defendant twice acknowledged that he understood his constitutional rights. The above facts led this Court in Jones to conclude that the defendant had been adequately informed of his constitutional *851 rights and had knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently waived them when he signed the waiver. It is clear that the facts which were persuasive in Jones are not present in the instant case. It follows, therefore, that the statements obtained from appellant during the interrogation should have been excluded at trial.
Having found that the admission of appellant's statements into evidence was erroneous, we must next determine whether this error was prejudicial. We are of the opinion that it was not.
Once it is shown that a constitutional error has been committed, a rebuttable presumption arises that such error was prejudicial. The burden is on the State to demonstrate that the accused was in no way prejudiced thereby. Harris v. State (1968), 249 Ind. 681, 231 N.E.2d 800; Chapman v. California (1967), 386 U.S. 18, 87 S. Ct. 824, 17 L. Ed. 2d 705.
Appellant's statements to Officer Brunkhart do nothing more than place the appellant in the presence of the victim on the night the crime was committed. The State, however, produced an abundance of evidence in the form of eyewitness testimony showing that appellant was with the victim, Toni Lynn Jackson, on the night in question. The uncontradicted testimony of the State's witnesses, Emma Bearfield and Sharon Jackson, both of whom were with the victim at the McCulloch Center, reveals that appellant called to the victim when she was outside the Center preparing to leave. The testimony further indicates that after conversing for a short time, appellant and Toni Lynn Jackson walked a short distance down the street away from the Center, the appellant holding the victim's arm behind her back. Her calls for help went unheeded because it was thought that appellant was not serious in his actions, as it was well-known that he and the victim were acquainted. The three girls had been in the process of leaving the Center for home and Miss Bearfield and Miss Jackson assumed that the appellant and the victim would follow. When it became apparent that appellant and Toni Lynn Jackson were not following, Emma Bearfield and Sharon Jackson returned to the Center in an unsuccessful effort to find them. This testimony fully corroborates the testimony given by the victim, Miss Toni Lynn Jackson.
As stated beforehand, this uncontradicted and unimpeached testimony places the appellant in the victim's presence on the night the crime allegedly occurred. It is also clear that he departed the Center with the victim, and that soon thereafter, neither the victim nor the appellant could be located in the immediate vicinity. Therefore, appellant's statements to Officer Brunkhart, which revealed only that appellant met the victim at the Center, and that she walked with him to his house where he picked up his coat, supplied information which was merely cumulative in nature, there being an abundance of similar evidence in the record showing that the couple departed the McCulloch Center together. Furthermore, if we disregard completely the testimony of Officer Brunkhart, all of the State's evidence clearly and convincingly indicates that a crime had been committed by the appellant, and this Court holds that the erroneous admission of appellant's statements constituted harmless error as those statements could not have in any way contributed to the guilty verdict reached by the jury. See Chapman v. California, supra.
It follows, therefore, that the judgment of the trial court must be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
PRENTICE, J., concurs.
GIVAN, J., concurs in result with opinion in which ARTERBURN, C.J., concurs.
*852 DeBRULER, J., concurs with opinion.
GIVAN, Judge (concurring).
I have concurred in the result in Judge Hunter's opinion in this case. However, I do not agree with his observation that the reading and signing of the waiver of his constitutional rights by the appellant was inadequate. I believe the record in this case clearly demonstrates that the appellant was fully and adequately advised of his constitutional rights.
ARTERBURN, C.J., concurs.
DeBRULER, Judge (concurring in result).
I concur in the result reached by Justice Hunter in this case, and agree that the waiver was inadequate. However, I do not agree that the warnings in this case were adequate as I have previously indicated in Jones v. State (1969), Ind., 252 N.E.2d 572. When the accused is told that "we have no way of giving you a lawyer but one will be appointed for you, if and when you go to court and the court finds that you are a pauper", he is effectively told that he can talk now or remain in custody  in an alien, friendless, harsh world  for an indeterminate length of time. To the average accused, still hoping at this stage to be home on time for dinner or to make it to work on time, the implication that his choice is to answer questions right away or remain in custody until that nebulous time "if and when" he goes to court is a coerced choice of the most obvious kind.
Furthermore, the printed warnings clearly imply that a lawyer will be helpful during questioning but would be unable to prevent the questioning. The accused is told that "you have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions, and to have him with you during questioning", and later "you also have the right to stop answering questions until you talk to a lawyer". (Emphasis added.) Thus, the accused is left with the impression that he can answer questions right away and possibly be released, or wait an indeterminate length of time in custody until a lawyer can be appointed to be with him while he is questioned. It is true that he is told that "you have the right to remain silent", but this simple statement does not and cannot convey the important protection of the Fifth Amendment to the accused, namely, that he has an absolute right not to answer questions at any time. This single sentence is especially inadequate where the remainder of the warning implies that a lawyer could only help him answer the question and not prevent any questioning.