Opinion ID: 1823099
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: West's Allegedly Coerced Statement

Text: At the time of the arrest, the police had (1) the statement of Lloyd West implicating plaintiff as a participant with West in the murder and (2) corroboration for West's statement by the fact that West and plaintiff were seen together nine hours before the murder. If the police had an honest and reasonable belief in the accuracy of the statement, they had probable cause to arrest plaintiff. West testified in the present civil action that the police coerced him to implicate plaintiff by beating him and forcing him to make the statement, and the trial judge expressly credited West's testimony about the beating. If the police indeed beat West into implicating himself and plaintiff in the robbery and murder, then the police did not have a good faith reasonable belief in the accuracy of West's statement, which they used as a basis for probable cause to arrest plaintiff. In the 1968 proceeding against West (that culminated in a plea bargain), West was represented by competent counsel, but his attorney did not move to suppress the confession, nor, as far as we can tell from the record, did West tell his attorney or the prosecutor, through his attorney, that he had been beaten into confessing. Furthermore, after West was sentenced, he had numerous opportunities to allege that his confession was compelled by force, yet failed to make such an assertion. For example, in West's 1985 affidavit asserting that he lied when he testified against Gibson in order to avoid a death sentence, West did not claim he was beaten into confessing. In fact, it appears the first time that West claimed he was beaten was four days after this suit for damages was filed by Gibson in 1993. Moreover, when West implicated himself and plaintiff in 1968 in the robbery and murder, the police had physical evidence (fingerprint) of West's involvement, but knew nothing about plaintiff or about any co-perpetrator, except that a person named Roland had been seen with West nine hours before the murder, There was no apparent motivation for the police to coerce West into implicating plaintiff as the triggerman, while there was a good reason for West to identify an accomplice as the triggerman in order to avoid the death penalty. West did avoid the death penalty by implicating plaintiff, but remained silent for more than twenty years about any bating by the police as his motivation for inculpating himself and implicating plaintiff. Significantly, the trial judge who granted post-conviction relief to plaintiff in 1993 did not do so on the basis that West's statement was coerced (although this evidence was presented to the trial judge), but granted relief because of a Brady violation. On reconsideration, we conclude that the trial judge was manifestly erroneous in crediting West's 1993 recantation of his 1968 statement. Accordingly, the application for rehearing is denied.