Opinion ID: 1379313
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: admissibility of the missouri homicide

Text: As previously stated, the prosecution introduced, at the penalty phase, (1) evidence that Laura Griffin was the victim of a homicide in Missouri in December 1969 and (2) defendant's admissions at the Rutherford preliminary hearing that he had killed Griffin. This evidence was admitted to show an aggravating factor, criminal activity by the defendant which involved the use or attempted use of force or violence. (§ 190.3, factor (b).) The prosecution introduced no evidence of any criminal proceedings against defendant for killing Griffin. The evidence of defendant's guilty plea to the second degree murder of Griffin, and of his imprisonment in Missouri and subsequent parole to California in 1977, was brought before the jury by the defense in response to the prosecution's evidence. Before the penalty phase commenced, defendant sought unsuccessfully to prevent the jury from hearing any of the foregoing evidence. After return of the verdicts of guilt, he moved to exclude all references to the Missouri homicide, on the ground that his prior admissions, which were the only evidence relied on by the prosecution to connect him to that crime, resulted directly from violations of his constitutional rights. The following facts were presented through exhibits, testimony, and a stipulation at the hearing of the motion on October 26 and 28, 1983. After being charged in Missouri with the murder of Griffin, defendant moved to suppress all his statements to the police as involuntary and illegally obtained, and all physical evidence obtained as a result of those statements. At the hearing on the motion in November 1970, the Missouri arresting officer testified that defendant had been surrendered by his counsel, who told the officer he did not want defendant to give the police any statements. The officer testified that after placing defendant in a psychiatric hospital, the officer visited defendant and questioned him about another crime, but did not talk to him or take any statement from him about the Griffin homicide. The officer said he learned of certain physical evidence in a trash can from defendant's friend, Sandy Columbo, before his visit to defendant. Defendant testified that soon after being placed in the hospital, he was interrogated by the officer about the killing of Griffin and gave the officer specific details about the crime and about physical evidence that might be found in a trash can near his house. The officer did not advise him of his right to counsel, and told him that his statements could not be used against him in court. Defendant told the officer he had divulged the details of the crime to Columbo, who had accompanied defendant and the police when he was taken to the hospital. He had told Columbo about the physical evidence in the trash can. On November 19, 1970, the Missouri trial court denied defendant's motions to suppress. On December 8, defendant pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment with credit for the nearly one year he had spent awaiting trial. After defendant's confession to, and arrest for, the present murders in April 1981, his then counsel, Douglas Gray, made an agreement with the prosecutor, at defendant's instigation, that defendant would give a further statement and would testify at the trials of his codefendants, not in exchange for any reduction in penalty, but for assurances that best efforts would be made to ensure his physical safety in custody (since he would be viewed as a snitch) and that his trial would follow those of the codefendants. Under informal questioning by the prosecutor in Gray's presence in January 1982  which was preceded by an admonition and waiver of the Miranda rights  defendant volunteered that he had told Rutherford about his conviction for murder in Missouri. Under questioning, he described how he had committed that crime. At the Rutherford preliminary hearing in January and February 1982, defendant testified to still further details of Griffin's murder. His last testimony in a codefendant's case was at the trial of Forrester in April 1982. In late September 1982, investigators from the San Mateo County Sheriff's office went to Missouri to obtain further evidence of the murder of Griffin in 1969. They interviewed a number of witnesses including Sandy Columbo and the officer who had arrested defendant. The investigators reported that the arresting officer stated as follows: Upon surrendering defendant to the police, defendant's attorney, Donald Clooney, told the police not to talk to defendant. After Clooney left, the officer conducted an interview with defendant, who confessed to the murder and described physical evidence connecting him to the victim, and where such evidence could be found. Based on these statements, the officer obtained this evidence from a garbage can behind defendant's apartment. The officer said that during a suppression hearing in court, he lied on the witness stand about where and how he had obtained the evidence. Columbo had also told him where certain items of evidence had been found, and the officer testified that seizure of the evidence had been based on her statements. One of the California investigators testified at the California suppression hearing that the arresting officer did not specifically say how he had lied at the Missouri hearing. Later, he testified the officer told us that the attorney [for defendant] had told him not to speak with his client, question him. He waited for the attorney to leave and did so anyway. The investigator believed the officer also somehow lied on the witness stand regarding the recovery of the physical evidence implicating defendant. He did not interrogate the officer regarding the nature of the lies but instead accepted his statement without specific context. Upon receiving the investigators' report in October 1982, the prosecutor promptly delivered a copy of it to defendant's counsel, Gray. On December 1, 1982, the prosecutor held a lengthy telephone conversation with the Missouri officer. This time, the officer suggested that the incriminating conversation consisted of defendant just volunteering the information. The officer said that before he spoke with defendant, the Missouri police had no evidence linking defendant to the Griffin murder. The crucial physical evidence was obtained from a trash can in which defendant told the officer he had burned Griffin's purse. Laboratory tests of burned marks in the bottom of the can revealed Griffin's bank number. Columbo was present when defendant made his self-incriminating statements. Thereafter, the officer questioned Columbo, who said that defendant had told her what she heard him disclose directly. Thus, the evidence that the police planned to use to link defendant to the Griffin murder consisted of the physical evidence from the trash can and his admissions to Columbo. The prosecutor's detailed report of this conversation was promptly delivered to defendant's counsel. In September 1983, counsel applied for a certificate for the attendance of out-of-state witnesses (§ 1334.3), with which the defense sought to subpoena two Missouri officers, including the one who had arrested and questioned defendant, as well as Columbo and Clooney, to testify at defendant's penalty trial in California. Counsel's declaration in support of the application stated that the witnesses were necessary to establish that defendant's confession to the Missouri police of the Griffin murder, and the physical evidence connecting defendant with that crime, were obtained as the result of an illegal interrogation. In opposition to the application, the California prosecutor declared to the Missouri court that he did not intend to introduce any evidence that defendant was convicted of the Missouri crime, or any statements made by defendant to Missouri officers, or any physical evidence obtained after the Missouri police learned that defendant was involved. He said he intended to introduce only testimony describing the scene of Griffin's death and the wounds disclosed by the autopsy, together with defendant's admissions of the crime to California sheriff's detectives and at the Rutherford preliminary hearing. The Missouri court denied the application, ruling that none of the requested witnesses' proposed testimony was necessary or material to defendant's trial. Attached as exhibits to defendant's California motion to exclude all evidence of the Missouri crime were (1) transcripts of the Missouri proceedings in 1970 concerning defendant's unsuccessful motion to suppress evidence and his subsequent guilty plea, (2) excerpts from defendant's statements to California sheriff's detectives and his testimony at the Rutherford preliminary hearing, all in January 1982, in which defendant admitted killing Griffin, and (3) the reports of the California sheriff's investigation in Missouri in September 1982 and the prosecutor's follow-up telephone conversation in December 1982, which revealed the admissions of the Missouri officer of his perjury in the 1970 suppression proceeding. At the two-day hearing in October 1983, it was stipulated that these exhibits could be received as correct copies of what they purported to be and could be considered as evidence of the truth of their contents. It was further stipulated that (1) defendant's confession to the Missouri officer of the homicide of Griffin was obtained in violation of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution, (2) the physical evidence of that crime (other than the body and the crime scene) was obtained as the direct unattenuated result of the unlawfully obtained confession, and (3) at the time of defendant's admissions of the Missouri murder in January 1982, neither defendant nor his attorney was aware of the grounds for vacating his Missouri conviction that were subsequently discovered by California investigators in September 1982 and by the prosecutor in December 1982. Attorney Gray, who was still representing defendant in early 1982, testified that if he had known then of the perjury of the Missouri officer in the 1970 suppression proceeding, he would have done whatever he could to prevent defendant from giving any further statements to the police or the prosecution, or from testifying in the proceedings against any of his codefendants. Gray also testified, however, that defendant indicated really almost enthusiasm for assisting the prosecution. The prosecutor testified he believed the Missouri officer had committed perjury. In argument, he concede[d] it's perjury. The motion to exclude all evidence of the Missouri homicide was then denied.
Since defendant was not allowed to call as witnesses in the California hearing any of the Missouri officials, and the Missouri officer has admitted he lied on the witness stand, the record is not precise regarding what occurred in that state. The only evidence we have about the nature of the officer's lies is his conversations with the California authorities, who did not ask probing questions. Defendant does not and cannot complain of this circumstance because the prosecution stipulated to the crucial facts. The important facts for our analysis regarding the events in Missouri are that defendant's confession was obtained in violation of his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, that the physical evidence implicating defendant in the Griffin murder was obtained as the direct unattenuated result of the unlawfully obtained confession, and that the officer committed perjury at the suppression hearing. The prosecution here did not seek to present evidence of the Missouri confession or of any of the incriminating physical evidence. Rather, it proved the corpus delicti of the murder  which is clearly not tainted by the illegal conduct  and defendant's 1982 statements in California admitting the murder. (21a) Thus, the sole issue before us is whether the California statements were rendered inadmissible because of the misconduct in Missouri. We conclude they were not. (22) In seeking to exclude evidence not directly obtained by illegal conduct, the defendant bears the burden of making a prima facie case that such evidence was `tainted' by  i.e., causally linked to  the primary illegality. [Citations.] This burden also is heavy. He must show more than that the challenged evidence `would not have come to light but for the illegal actions of the police'; rather, he must establish that it `has been come at by exploitation of that illegality....' ( Wong Sun v. United States [(1963)] 371 U.S. [471], 488, italics added.) If the defendant makes this showing, the burden shifts to the prosecution to prove that the taint has been `purged' and hence that the evidence is admissible in spite of the primary illegality. [Citations.] ( People v. Williams (1988) 45 Cal.3d 1268, 1300 [248 Cal. Rptr. 834, 756 P.2d 221].) (23) Incriminating statements by a defendant are admissible despite previous unlawful governmental conduct if they are sufficiently an act of free will to purge the primary taint ( Wong Sun v. United States (1963) 371 U.S. 471, 486 [9 L.Ed.2d 441, 454, 83 S.Ct. 407]), or, phrased differently, if the connection between the illegality and the confession had `become so attenuated as to dissipate the taint.' ( Id. at p. 491 [9 L.Ed.2d at p. 457], citing and quoting Nardone v. United States (1939) 308 U.S. 338, 341 [84 L.Ed. 307, 312, 60 S.Ct. 266].) In Brown v. Illinois (1975) 422 U.S. 590 [45 L.Ed.2d 416, 95 S.Ct. 2254], where the issue was the admissibility of a confession taken after an illegal arrest, the high court said: The question whether a confession is the product of a free will under Wong Sun must be answered on the facts of each case. No single fact is dispositive.... The Miranda warnings are an important factor, to be sure, in determining whether the confession is obtained by exploitation of [the illegality]. But they are not the only factor to be considered. The temporal proximity of the [illegality] and the confession, the presence of intervening circumstances, and, particularly, the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct are all relevant. ( Id. at pp. 603-604 [45 L.Ed.2d at p. 427], citation and fns. omitted, quoted in People v. Montano (1991) 226 Cal. App.3d 914, 937-938 [277 Cal. Rptr. 327].) (21b) An analysis of the Brown factors ( supra, 422 U.S. 590) convinces us that defendant's California statements were an act of free will, and any connection between them and the Missouri events was so attenuated as to dissipate the taint. The California statements were preceded by Miranda warnings (an important factor), and were made over 11 years after the illegal conduct with major intervening circumstances. They were far removed geographically, were initiated by defendant, and were taken by different authorities. Defendant had already voluntarily confessed to the two California murders, and, according to his own attorney, showed almost enthusiasm for assisting the prosecution. There was never any suggestion of coercion, either in Missouri or in California. When a prior statement is actually coerced, the time that passes between confessions, the change in place of interrogations, and the change in identity of the interrogators all bear on whether that coercion has carried over into the second confession. ( Oregon v. Elstad (1985) 470 U.S. 298, 310 [84 L.Ed.2d 222, 232-233, 105 S.Ct. 1285].) Each of these factors supports a finding of attenuation in this case, which is especially significant given the complete absence of actual coercion. It is true that defendant's knowledge that he had already confessed and pleaded guilty to the Missouri murder gave him a false sense that he had nothing to lose in talking to the California authorities. This might have played a role in defendant's decision to speak, and certainly was crucial to his attorney's acquiescence in that decision. At most, however, this suggests that but for the illegality, defendant would not have confessed in California. As explained above, that is not the test. The strong factors in attenuation predominate. Citing Coleman v. McCormick (9th Cir.1989) 874 F.2d 1280, defendant argues the unlawful conduct improperly affected his attorney's advice on whether defendant should speak with the California authorities. Coleman was tried and sentenced to death under a mandatory death penalty law that was later declared unconstitutional. A new death penalty law was enacted and applied retroactively to him. Coleman received a new sentencing hearing under the new law, but not a new guilt phase trial. The sentencing judge, who also presided over the original trial, imposed a new death penalty. The judge relied in part on evidence, including defense evidence, presented at the trial held under the unconstitutional mandatory law. The Ninth Circuit found this violated due process. Coleman was sentenced to death under a statute not in effect at the time of his trial. The new statute added a sentencing `trial' at which the sentencing judge could consider any evidence that came in during the guilt phase. By contrast, the old statute required the death penalty once a defendant was convicted of aggravated kidnapping. Coleman's counsel made countless tactical decisions at trial aimed solely at obtaining Coleman's acquittal, without even a hint that evidence in the record would be considered as either mitigating or aggravating factors. ( Id. at p. 1289.) Coleman considered whether a trial held under one set of rules can later be used to reach a sentencing verdict under a quite different set of rules, and concluded it cannot. Here, the issue is quite different  whether the unlawful police conduct tainted the confession. Resolution of the issue requires application of the attenuation rules of Brown v. Illinois, supra, 422 U.S. 590. Unlike Coleman, where the due process violation affected countless tactical decisions (874 F.2d at p. 1289), the effect of the unlawful conduct on the advice of counsel, although relevant, is not dispositive. Defendant's own enthusiasm for talking to the authorities minimizes the effect of this factor, and it does not overcome the factors in attenuation. The only Brown v. Illinois factor ( supra, 422 U.S. 590) that arguably supports suppression is the particularly important one of the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct; even this does not point unambiguously towards suppression. On the one hand, the Missouri officer's misconduct  including particularly the perjury  was egregious. Perjury is qualitatively different from ordinary search and seizure or Miranda violations. It involve[s] a corruption of the truth-seeking function of the trial process. ( United States v. Agurs (1976) 427 U.S. 97, 104 [49 L.Ed.2d 342, 350, 96 S.Ct. 2392].) Perjury by law enforcement officials is particularly pernicious. Our entire criminal justice system is built around the belief, and necessity, that law enforcement officers will testify truthfully. Courts generally believe the testimony of such persons rather than that of the accused, as occurred in the Missouri suppression hearing. Deliberate, cynical perjury by law enforcement officials strikes at the very core of our system of law. It manipulates and thereby perverts the entire judicial process. This is not a case where, in Justice Cardozo's words, `the constable ... blundered'.... ( United States v. Henry (1980) 447 U.S. 264, 274-275 [65 L.Ed.2d 115, 125, 100 S.Ct. 2183], quoting People v. DeFore (1926) 242 N.Y. 13, 21 [150 N.E. 585, 587].) Instead, as a pernicious perjurer, the constable crumbled hallowed protections due the accused. It is this factor that makes this issue close and troubling. On the other hand, the conduct of the California authorities  the ones who took the admitted statements  was exemplary. They scrupulously protected defendant's rights in California, and investigated and promptly reported the prior unlawful conduct. They served the citizens of this state well by effectively investigating and solving a serious crime while at the same time fully conforming to the law. Suppression of the California confession would penalize the California authorities and the people they serve, not the Missouri officials. On balance, we find that defendant's California statements were acts of his free will under circumstances sufficiently attenuated from the earlier illegality as to dissipate the primary taint, despite the seriousness of that taint. Thus, the trial court did not err in admitting the statements.