Opinion ID: 2289965
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether the Appellant Was Forced To Claim the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination to His Prejudice

Text: As mentioned earlier, the confession of the appellant was crucial to the Commonwealth's case. Its voluntariness thus became the chief issue at trial. The appellant took the stand in his own behalf for the purpose of attacking the confession by showing it to have been coerced. Before appellant's direct examination commenced, defense counsel stated his intention of calling the defendant on the voluntariness issue only, without any waiver of his right against self-incrimination. The court stated that . . . I will rule on matters as they come up. I cannot foresee what cross-examination will suggest. I will rule on it when I hear them. When, immediately thereafter, appellant took the witness chair, he testified, confirming what his counsel had said, that it was his intention to claim his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination as to the events of the night of the alleged crimes. The assistant district attorney made no commitment as to what his position would be. As indicated briefly in part I, appellant's direct testimony included a recital of the course of events and the treatment accorded him by the police from the time of his arrest at his home through the signing of his formal statement at headquarters. He testified as to the questioning to which he was subjected and various coercive measures employed by the officers in their attempt to obtain incriminating statements. He described the manner in which the formal statement was prepared, stated he had read the document through, had made certain corrections to it, and had signed his name at the foot of each page. Then followed an extensive cross-examination of defendant in the course of which defendant objected or claimed his Fifth Amendment privilege a number of times. The claim of privilege was sustained a number of times, [3] and overruled with respect to an approximately equivalent number. Most of the latter rulings were because the matters involved had been referred to in direct examination. The appellant's argument is not that the court erred in overruling the claim of privilege in the instances where the court did so, but that prejudice resulted to the appellant when he was obliged repeatedly to claim the privilege. Appellant in his brief asserts that The District Attorney over and over again successfully, in effect, forced the defendant into an open-Court confession of guilt, by forcing him to claim his privilege. Appellant's position is, furthermore, that when he took the stand and gave advance notice of his non-waiver of the Fifth Amendment privilege as to the events surrounding the crime, and the court allowed him to do so, this was tantamount to a ruling that appellant could take the stand without danger of losing his privilege. It was on this ruling and on this basis that the defendant took the stand, his brief states. The appellant now contends that this understanding was flouted by the assistant district attorney and ignored by the trial court both in its rulings and its subsequent opinion refusing post-trial motions. The privilege against self-incrimination has been extended by the constitutions of Pennsylvania at least since the Constitution of 1776. The privilege is, of course, a federal right as well, being a part of the Fifth Amendment, and as such has been made applicable to state proceedings through the Fourteenth Amendment. Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1 (1964). Any witness in a judicial proceeding has the right to refuse to answer certain questions on the ground that to do so might tend to incriminate him. A defendant in a criminal proceeding, moreover, may refuse, under the same constitutional protection, to take the witness stand altogether. The issue with which we are here concerned is the status of the privilege of a defendant who does take the stand to testify on his own behalf, but for a limited purpose; specifically, whether the privilege against self-incrimination was waived for all purposes when Camm testified to the events surrounding his arrest, detention, interrogation and confession. The court en banc below, in its opinion, gave an affirmative answer, thus holding that appellant was given a large indulgence not legally required when the trial court sustained any claims of privilege. There are cases which tend to support this view. [4] We think, however, the more correct reading of these cases is that if a defendant takes the stand and opens an area of inquiry, he cannot claim the privilege when, on cross-examination, he is interrogated in that particular area, and that wide latitude should be allowed in cross-examination. [5] In the case at bar, since appellant's direct testimony was restricted to the general question of voluntariness of his confession, the waiver of his privilege was co-extensive with the permissible scope of cross-examination relative to that subject; it was not a general waiver. Brown v. United States, 356 U.S. 148 (1958); Calloway v. Wainwright, 409 F. 2d 59 (5th Cir. 1968). The Commonwealth sought to justify a number of the questions of the district attorney on the theory that truth of the contents of the confession was relevant to the question of voluntariness. The trial court properly ruled to the contrary, and sustained the claim of privilege to such questions. Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U.S. 534 (1961); Commonwealth v. Senk, 412 Pa. 184, 194 A. 2d 221 (1963) (vacated on other grounds, Senk v. Penna., 378 U.S. 562); Commonwealth v. Vento, 410 Pa. 350, 189 A. 2d 161 (1963). Appellant contends, however, as indicated above, that the prosecution caused prejudice by forcing him to claim his privilege, presumably on the theory that the claim of privilege is construed by a trier of fact to be an admission of guilt. Thus, it is argued, refusing to be a witness against oneself supplies, inferentially, the evidence the defendant seeks to avoid giving. There are cases where the prosecution has called a witness, knowing beforehand he would claim the privilege, and then attempted to supplement the state's case by inferences drawn from the witness' silence. Fletcher v. U. S., 332 F. 2d 724 (D.C. Cir. 1964); U.S. v. Tucker, 267 F. 2d 212 (3rd Cir. 1959); People v. Pollock, 21 N.Y. 2d 206, 234 N.E. 2d 223 (1967). See Namet v. U.S., 373 U.S. 179, 186-87 (1963); U.S. v. Maloney, 262 F. 2d 535 (2d Cir. 1959). Our review of the present record fails to persuade us that any such conscious or flagrant attempt to build a case from improper inferences was made in this case. A defendant cannot protect himself against wide-ranging cross-examination merely by announcing that he is taking the stand solely to refute the voluntariness of his confession. On the contrary, he subjects himself to good-faith cross-examination and the discretionary rulings of the trial judge as to the permissible scope of that cross-examination. In deciding to take the stand, the defendant must weigh the risks of so doing against the risks of not doing so. Since, in the case before us, there was no advance ruling by the court on the consequences of appellant taking the stand and there was no agreement by the district attorney not to cross-examine, we find no prejudice of which appellant can now complain.