Opinion ID: 2333091
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: The confession of Albert Wise.

Text: Albert Wise was the first of the defendants to be apprehended by the police during the investigation of Sergeant Bond's murder. He was arrested at about 8 P.M. on Sunday evening, February 14, while enroute from Springfield, Massachusetts, to New Jersey and was taken to the Connecticut State Police Barracks at Bethany, Connecticut. He was questioned briefly by the police and confined in a cell for the remainder of the evening and until breakfast on the morning of February 15. According to Albert's testimony, his first contact with any members of the Union Township Police Department came shortly after breakfast on the morning of February 15, when he was questioned for about an hour by Chief Lombardi, Sergeant Kitchell and Detective Spies. He was returned to his cell for the rest of the day and shortly after dinner that evening he was driven to the Union Township Police Station in the custody of police officers, arriving there at about 10:30 P.M. After being questioned briefly, at about midnight he was placed in a police line-up. Albert declares that commencing immediately after the line-up until he gave his statement sometime after dinner on Friday evening, February 19, he was subjected to almost continuous interrogation by various members of the Union Township Police Department, principally Lombardi, Spies, Kitchell, Ebert and Reiss, and was slapped in the face or beaten about the chest and stomach on at least five occasions by Detective Ebert. He said all the beatings were administered to him in a basement room at the police station, and on one occasion he was made to stand against a wall with his legs spread apart and his hands behind his head with a spotlight glaring in his face. Ebert, he said, told him on Thursday, February 18, that he would get a confession out of him or kill him. On Friday he was left alone in his cell for most of the day and after dinner was confronted by his brother, Joseph Wise, who informed him Harry had confessed and that he himself had told the police all he knew. Shortly afterward, Albert testified Ebert approached him and told him he might as well confess too, and if he did so, he would be given no more than 10 to 12 years. Not long afterward, Albert was taken to the detectives' room, where he gave his statement to the police. After the confession had been typed and signed by Albert, he said he told the county prosecutor he had been promised he would be given consideration and the prosecutor said that no one had authority to do so. To support his version of the events leading up to the confession, Albert produced one witness, his uncle, Caleb Oglesby, who testified he had seen Albert on Thursday, the 18th, in a cell block at the station house and that Albert had complained of pains in his chest and of being so sore he could not sit down. This testimony was vigorously rebutted by the State. It produced Chief Lombardi, Sergeant Kitchell, Detectives Ebert, Reiss, Spies and Trimborn, all of whom denied ever having slapped, punched, beaten or in any other way maltreated Albert Wise during his confinement at the Union Township Police Station. Ebert also denied ever having made any threats or promises in connection with Albert's confession. The State also produced Trooper Kane of the New Jersey State Police, who administered a lie detector test to Albert on Thursday, February 18. Kane testified he had asked Albert whether he had been abused in any way by the police and Albert had replied in the negative. Dr. George Kempe, a physician, was called by the State. He testified he had examined Albert in his cell at the police station in the morning and in the evening of February 18, and again on Saturday, February 20. He gave Albert a thorough physical examination and discovered no signs of bruises or physical injuries, other than a first-degree burn on Albert's face, which concededly Albert had had prior to having been taken into custody. According to Dr. Kempe, Albert appeared to be quite nervous and his heart beat was fast. After his first examination on Thursday, he treated the burn on Albert's face, and after the second examination he gave him a bromide, a mild form of sedative, to calm him. At no time did Albert complain to him of having been beaten by the police. The State also called Father Begley, a priest, who was present as an impartial witness at the signing of Albert's confession, having been called there for that purpose by the county prosecutor and the police. He testified Albert was given a typewritten statement and that he read aloud and initialed the first four or five pages. Then Albert said: I don't want to read any more, and Chief Lombardi asked him whether he would consent to his reading the statement. Albert agreed and Chief Lombardi read the next four or five pages. He then asked Albert to resume reading the statement, and at that point Albert told him he had been promised consideration in return for making the statement. The witness' own words best describe what happened afterward: That caused discussion among the police officers. They wanted to know who had told him this, and he said some of the police officers. As far as my recollection goes, they were not identified by name. Prosecutor Morss told the defendant that no one had any authority or power to make such a promise, that it was entirely out of their field of duty, and that their duty was to apprehend and to punish those who committed crime and not to give consideration. Then Albert continued to read and he read from there on in a low tone, but clearly enough to be heard in every way by me. I would say that he was calm, in good condition, in full possession of his faculties, perhaps under a little strain, which perhaps would be natural enough. Albert was arraigned before a magistrate during the morning of February 20. In substance, Albert Wise contends he was not arraigned before the nearest magistrate without unnecessary delay as required by our rules; he was questioned extensively without being given an opportunity to rest and repair; he was assaulted by the police on various occasions, and was promised leniency. His counsel in his brief asserts: The constant beating and persistent questioning of this defendant forced him into a confession. Brutal treatment should be reason enough for exclusion regardless of the apparent truthfulness. Obviously realizing, however, the infirmity of his own factual position, counsel admits: It is very unlikely that any trial court would exclude a confession where the evidence will be conflicting on the issues of voluntariness. This was exactly the reaction of the trial judge in the instant case. Analyzing the testimony most favorable to the defendant, the result is practically an uncorroborated story of physical force and coercion vehemently denied by every police official active in the interrogation, amply supported by the physician who attended him and further fortified by a priest, an impartial witness whose fair and unprejudiced version of what he saw and heard impresses merely with the reading of his utterances. The delay in arraigning, if there was any, is not fatally defective in itself, but as was said in State v. Pierce, supra : Whenever there has been any undue delay in taking an arrested person before a magistrate, in violation of our rule, careful scrutiny will be given to the conditions under which a statement was taken from him during the period of delay and such a statement will be admitted in evidence only when it convincingly appears that it was in fact and in truth voluntarily made. Regardless of what rule the United States Supreme Court has evolved for the purposes of the federal judicial system, see McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 63 S.Ct. 608, 87 L.Ed. 819 (1943), almost every state court which has been called upon to decide this question has held that confessions are not inadmissible merely because they are obtained from one who is illegally in custody, but are admissible if otherwise voluntary. People v. Vinci, 295 Ill. 419, 129 N.E. 193 ( Sup. Ct. 1920); State v. Raftery, 252 Mo. 72, 158 S.W. 585 ( Sup. Ct. 1913); Balbo v. People, 80 N.Y. 484 ( Ct. App. 1880); 2 Wharton, Criminal Evidence (11 th ed. 1935), § 610. The illegality of the custody is but another factor to be considered in determining whether the confession is voluntary. People v. Elmore, 277 N.Y. 397, 14 N.E. 2 d 451, 124 A.L.R. 465 ( Ct. App. 1938). As to the promised leniency, the record clearly shows that when the prisoner claimed its existence he was informed no one was in a position to make such a promise and he would not receive any benefit by signing his statement. Additionally, he was so warned by the prosecutor. That he entertained no such thought is quite apparent from the remark attributed to him after the signing of his statement: I just gave you my death warrant. Furthermore, even if the prisoner's version of the physical applications were believed, it is nevertheless quite obvious from the record that these methods never succeeded in producing the questioned confession. The evidence shows implicitly it was forthcoming because his brother informed him that Harry had confessed and he too had told the authorities all he knew. The futility of further protection by silence could not have been more effectively demonstrated, and with a consciousness of the dilemma so created, the prisoner capitulated and admittedly told the truth, no more, no less. Applying the rules already enunciated, we see no error in the admission of the confession.