Opinion ID: 2202344
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the requested instruction on voluntariness

Text: The defendant requested the trial justice to instruct the jury concerning the testimony of Ronnie Champagne as follows: If it appears from the evidence in the case that a statement would not have been made, but for some threat of harm or some offer or promise of immunity from prosecution, or leniency in punishment, or other reward, such a statement should not be considered as having been voluntarily made, because of the danger that a person accused might be persuaded by the pressure of hope or fear to confess as facts things which are not true, in an effort to avoid threatened harm or punishment, or to secure a promised reward. If the evidence in the case leaves the jury with a reasonable doubt as to whether a statement was voluntarily made, then the jury should disregard it entirely. If, on the other hand, you find that the statement in evidence was voluntarily made then you will give it such weight as you feel it deserves under the circumstances. The jury will always bear in mind that the law never imposes upon a defendant in a criminal case the burden or duty of calling any witnesses or producing any evidence. The trial justice, however, declined to give this instruction but gave a general instruction concerning credibility without adverting to the effect of the involuntariness of the statement in the event that the jury found the statement to have been the product of coercion. At the outset we are of the opinion that the requested instruction was erroneous. In effect it would have peremptorily ordered the jurors to disregard the testimony of Ronnie Champagne if they had a reasonable doubt concerning whether the statement was voluntarily made. We know of no precedent from the Supreme Court of the United States that would require a jury to ignore the testimony of a live witness on the basis of having a reasonable doubt concerning whether a prior statement containing the substance of such testimony had been produced by coercion. There is, of course, ample precedent for the jury's ignoring a confession by the accused if involuntary, even though such confession has been admitted into evidence. State v. Lima, 546 A.2d 770 (R.I. 1988); State v. Ferola, 518 A.2d 1339 (R.I. 1986); State v. Verlaque, 465 A.2d 207 (R.I. 1983); State v. Killay, 430 A.2d 418 (R.I. 1981); State v. Mariano, 37 R.I. 168, 91 A. 21 (1914). This principle has not been applied to the live testimony of a witness by this court. It has similarly never been applied by the Supreme Court of the United States as a constitutional imperative to the testimony of a live witness. Indeed even a defendant's confession is not required by the Court to be submitted to the jury on the issue of voluntariness. Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477, 92 S.Ct. 619, 30 L.Ed.2d 618 (1972). The defendant has cited LaFrance v. Bohlinger, 499 F.2d 29, 34 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1080, 95 S.Ct. 669, 42 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974), as enunciating the principle that a statement obtained by coercion from a witness other than the defendant may not be used to establish guilt on due-process grounds. In that case the Court of Appeals determined that a statement previously given by a witness, and used to cross-examine the witness as a prior inconsistent statement should have been the subject of an inquiry outside the hearing of the jury in order to determine whether it was admissible as a voluntary statement. The Court of Appeals inferred this requirement from the rationale of Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964), when read together with Lego v. Twomey, supra . In establishing this due-process right, the First Circuit relied to a great extent upon dissenting opinions filed in Malinski v. New York, 324 U.S. 401, 65 S.Ct. 781, 89 L.Ed. 1029 (1945) (Rutledge, J. dissenting). See also Bradford v. Michigan, 394 U.S. 1022, 89 S.Ct. 1638, 23 L.Ed.2d 48 (1969) (Warren, J. dissenting from denial of cert.); Hysler v. Florida, 315 U.S. 411, 62 S.Ct. 688, 86 L.Ed. 932 (1942) (Black, J. dissenting). It is unnecessary for us, however, to determine whether the First Circuit's holding in this case comports with the constitutional requirements laid down by the Supreme Court of the United States concerning standing to assert violations of the Fifth Amendment under the guise of a due-process violation because this case simply does not apply to the circumstances of the case at bar. In LaFrance the First Circuit clearly conceded that under Lego v. Twomey, supra , there was no federal constitutional right to have voluntariness submitted to the jury. This issue was deferred to the Massachusetts court in the event that the District Court should find that the statement was not voluntary. Whether the Massachusetts court would submit this question to the jury was a decision that the federal court had no power to make. In the instant case defendant did not challenge the admissibility of the testimony of Ronnie Champagne; therefore, that question was never presented to the court. He then sought by this instruction to require the jury to disregard the testimony if it had a reasonable doubt concerning voluntariness. No decision of this court would support such an instruction, and we specifically reject it here. We believe that this jury should have been instructed, as it was, concerning credibility of testimony. It should also have been instructed to take into account the voluntariness or involuntariness of such testimony in determining the weight, if any, to be given to such testimony. If the jurors found that the testimony was produced by coercion, then they had a right to disbelieve it or reject it. It was certainly not the burden of the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to the jurors that the testimony was voluntary. The trial justice therefore committed no error in declining to give the requested instruction. We have discussed this issue at some length in order to furnish guidance to the trial justice who may preside over a new trial.