Opinion ID: 1969802
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: 71, a.89-90, d.5, d.9)

Text: Defendant maintains that the audio tape contained uncounselled, post-indictment statements, and that their admission into evidence violated his right to counsel under State v. Sanchez, 129 N.J. 261, 609 A. 2d 400 (1992). Although defendant was actually indicted some time after the night he made the tape at the motel, he claims that he was to all intents and purposes indicted before then. Defendant relies on the fact that he was named as one who had conspired with Cumber in the affidavit of September 22, 1984, in support of the application for a warrant for Cumber's arrest. Defendant claims that he was the unnamed co-conspirator A.B. in the indictment charging Cumber with conspiracy to commit murder, issued the day before the tape was seized. We need not reach the issue of whether defendant had been the subject of a de facto indictment, or whether anything short of a formal indictment would trigger the constitutional protections of Sanchez. In Sanchez, supra, we held that interrogation of an indicted defendant initiated by law-enforcement representatives without the consent of defense counsel violated the defendant's right to counsel under Article I, Paragraph 10, of the New Jersey Constitution. 129 N.J. at 277, 609 A. 2d 400. The Sanchez rule, however, is inapplicable to the facts of this case. The content of the tape was not the product of interrogation; indeed, it was not even a statement made to law enforcement officials. Rather, it was a voluntary, non-privileged communication to a private third party that happened to fall into the hands of the authorities. Accordingly, this claim is without merit. Defendant also claims that the seizure of his communication to his attorney chilled his First Amendment rights. The First Amendment provides no basis for suppressing incriminating statements by a defendant that the authorities have obtained by lawful means. Defendant's claim that his right of access to the courts has been impaired fails on the same ground as his claim based on attorney-client privilege. Because no privilege was violated, there has been no interference with defendant's access to the legal system. Defendant further claims that he is entitled to any report that accounted for the disposition of the contents of the glass of Coca-cola into which defendant told the investigators he had placed a lethal dose of sleeping medicine. Defendant claims that a chemical analysis of the Coca-cola would have shown that he had been telling the truth about the sleeping medicine, which would have supported his claim that he had intended to commit suicide. However, there has been no showing that such a report ever existed or that any chemical analysis was ever prepared. Moreover, we are unpersuaded that evidence that the Coca-cola contained sleeping medicine would have been favorable to defendant. Even if the Coca-cola were spiked with a lethal dose of medicine, the fact remains that defendant did not drink it. Thus, the presence of the sleeping medicine would not have negated the inference that the suicide attempt was a sham. In any event, whether the suicide attempt was real or feigned is not probative of the real issue that confronted the jury: whether or not defendant was guilty of murdering his wife. As the State points out, a guilty person is perhaps even more likely to attempt suicide than an innocent one who fears an unjust conviction. Finally, defendant asserts as an independent claim that he was entitled to receive property receipts for the tape recorder, cassette tape and batteries, as well as the report of the F.B.I. Technical Services Division that analyzed the tape. He claims no specific prejudice in connection with the failure to receive this material, but asserts it in support of his argument that the State's disregard of its discovery obligations worked a cumulative prejudice against the defense. However, in light of defendant's concession that there was no prejudice caused by the failure to produce that material, it cannot have added to the cumulative prejudice caused by other alleged discovery violations. Therefore, we deny this claim as well.