Title: Brunson v. State
Citation: 264 So. 2d 817
Docket Number: 46790
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: July 3, 1972

264 So. 2d 817 (1972) Billy W. BRUNSON v. STATE of Mississippi. No. 46790. Supreme Court of Mississippi. July 3, 1972. Clarence E. Morgan, III, Kosciusko, for appellant. *818 A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Karen Gilfoy, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee. SMITH, Justice: Billy Wayne Brunson was convicted of burglary in the Circuit Court of Attala County and sentenced to serve a term of six years in the penitentiary. He appeals. Brunson was an employee of Southern Electroforming, Inc. The office of that firm was burglarized on the night of August 28, 1971, and certain articles of personal property were stolen, including some of the firm's imprinted and numbered blank checks. The burglary was discovered the following morning by the foreman who reported it to the police. Officers were sent out to investigate. Apparently as the result of an old foot injury, Brunson had developed a habit of going barefoot. The residual effect of the injury was a certain deformity which caused Brunson to leave a distinctive footprint. After the burglary was discovered, prints, resembling those of Brunson, were observed near the building, although not in the vicinity of the window through which entry to the building had been effected. The area outside the window was covered with grass. On the basis of these tracks the officers decided to talk to Brunson. They located him at the home of a friend and asked him if he had any objection to coming down to the City Hall. He had none and drove down in his own car. When he arrived there, he consented to being fingerprinted, although it does not appear that fingerprints played any part in the investigation. The account of an officer as to what next transpired, as it appears in the record, is as follows: There was an objection and a motion to exclude, because of the omission to give the warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 10 A.L.R.3d 974 (1966). It is conceded that prior to making the above confession, Brunson had not been given the warnings required by Miranda. After this admission of guilt, Brunson gave the officers further details and then led them to the place where he had concealed the articles stolen from the office. There is no suggestion that Brunson's confession was not wholly voluntary, was not entirely free from coercion and from the offer of any inducement. Later, about 1:00 on the afternoon of the same day, Brunson was interrogated for about 30 minutes by the city attorney, this time admittedly after having been given the Miranda warning. On this occasion, he again confessed. Again there is no hint of coercion nor of any improper inducement. Brunson did testify that in the warnings given him the word "counsel" was used instead of "attorney" and that he did not know what that meant. He testified, however, that he had been given the Miranda warnings in Los Angeles on a former occasion. Later he attempted to hedge by saying that he didn't know about Miranda but in Los Angeles they "gave me my constitutional rights," that he had been there given the "full warning" which included the right to remain silent and to have an attorney present. At this time, Brunson asked the city attorney if he, Brunson, could be released on his own "O.R." The city attorney, not being familiar with the expression, asked Brunson what it meant and was told by Brunson that it meant his "own recognizance." After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court excluded the first confession, but admitted testimony of an officer that Brunson had directed the officers to the concealed loot, and also admitted the second confession which had been given after Brunson had been given the Miranda warnings. Brunson offered no defense and bases his appeal squarely upon the proposition that the omission of the Miranda warnings prior to his first admission of guilt (which was excluded) rendered inadmissible the testimony regarding his showing the officers where he had hidden the stolen articles, as well as his second confession, made to the city attorney after the warnings required by Miranda had been given, contending that their admission was reversible error. In Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S. Ct. 407, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441 (1963), the United States Supreme Court said: *820 In Dover v. State, 227 So. 2d 296 (Miss. 1969) this Court said: The testimony of the officers is not harmonious as to whether they themselves considered that Brunson actually had been arrested at the time of his first confession. It should be noted that the exclusion of this confession is the subject of a cross-appeal by the State. We are constrained to hold, however, from the testimony of the officers, considered in connection with all of the attendant facts and circumstances, that Brunson must be considered as having been under arrest at the time. In dealing with the questions presented by this appeal, we are not at liberty to pass upon the wisdom or unwisdom of the Miranda requirements. We must remain inescapably bound by the so-called Miranda rule laid down by the United States Supreme Court until that Court, in its own good time, shall reexamine the desirability of retaining it. The admissibility of a confession should be made to depend upon its voluntariness. The trial court should be permitted to inquire into the total circumstances for the purpose of determining the voluntariness of a proffered confession. The effect of Miranda has long since become manifest and a matter of public concern. The United States Congress, as representatives of the people of this country, has recognized the seriousness of the matter and has seen fit to deal with it through the enactment of a public law which appears as 18 U.S.C.A. § 3501, Admissibility of Confessions. While safeguarding the rights of an accused against coercion, the Act provides, in effect, that a trial court, in determining the admissibility of a confession, may consider the totality of the circumstances under which the confession was made in order to determine the basic question of whether it was or was not voluntary. Unfortunately, this salutary legislation is limited in its effect to the federal courts. Commonwealth v. Ware, 438 Pa. 517, 265 A.2d 790 (1970); People v. Whisenant, 384 Mich. 693, 187 N.W.2d 229 (1971). We are unable to discover or conceive any reason why there should be differing standards in the State and Federal trial courts in this area. This case presents a striking example of a man who has twice confessed voluntarily, there being no hint or suggestion of coercion, who has proven the truth of his confession by conducting the officers to the place where he had hidden the stolen articles, whose conviction must be reversed because he had confessed his guilt after being asked a few questions and before the Miranda warnings had been given. The unreality of this standard gains emphasis from the fact that he later confessed, again quite voluntarily, and although this time after he had been given the warnings, such confession is also inadmissible. Moreover, in testifying in his own behalf on the motion to exclude, he displayed a remarkable familiarity with criminal procedure and admitted that he had been given the "full constitutional rights" in Los Angeles on a former occasion, including the warning that he had a right to remain silent and to the presence of an attorney. He also asked to be released on his "own recognizance." Acting, as we must, under the mandate laid down by the United States Supreme *821 Court in Miranda, the judgment of conviction appealed from is reversed and the case remanded. Affirmed on cross-appeal; reversed and remanded on direct appeal. All Justices concur except ROBERTSON and SUGG, JJ., who dissent.