Opinion ID: 2015081
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Motion to Suppress Statement Based on Police Coercion

Text: In his amended post-conviction petition, defendant relies on material outside the trial record to argue that his inculpatory statement to the police following his interrogation was the result of coercive tactics, including physical abuse. The new evidence, which was obtained by post-conviction counsel, includes internal police reports, affidavits, legal filings in other lawsuits, and lengthy additional exhibits corroborating the charge of widespread physical abuse of suspects under interrogation at Area 2 Violent Crimes by certain detectives and supervisors as a means of forcing confessions. Specifically, the record contains the report of an Office of Professional Standards (OPS) investigation into claims of abuse at Area 2 headquarters during the reign of Commander John Burge, who has since been terminated from the Chicago police force as a result of his misconduct. [1] An OPS investigator who studied approximately 50 claims of police abuse during 1978 through 1986 concluded: [T]he preponderance of the evidence is that abuse did occur and that it was systematic. He further found that [t]he number of incidents in which an Area 2 command member is identified as an accused can lead to only one conclusion. Particular command members were aware of the systematic abuse and perpetuated it either by actively participating in same or failing to take any action to bring it to an end. Defendant's post-conviction petition contains an affidavit by an attorney claiming considerable experience in police abuse cases. This attorney drew on his own experience of almost 30 years litigating, investigating, or reviewing approximately 75 police brutality claims. He also evaluated the OPS report and other information he received. This attorney concluded that three of the four officers who participated in defendant's interrogation at Area 2 had been identified as officers who had engaged in a pattern of brutality during the time defendant and his codefendants were interrogated. The record also contains pleadings filed in federal court, transcripts of testimony, and orders in which the City of Chicago has settled claims of police brutality. These materials from other cases involve the alleged physical abuse of other defendants by Area 2 officers, including the police officers who procured defendant's inculpatory statements in the instant case. Despite its acknowledgment of the [n]umerous exhibits, including affidavits, reports, and transcripts, [which] are attached to [defendant's] amended petition in support of this claim (173 Ill.2d at 120, 219 Ill.Dec. at 9, 670 N.E.2d at 687), the majority opinion does not further describe or consider the now available evidence suggesting systematic police misconduct at Area 2 at the time of defendant's interrogation. Instead, the majority summarily disposes of defendant's claim of police coercion by deferring to the trial court's original finding, at the hearing to suppress the codefendants' statements, that defendant was not injured and that any alleged injury did not occur as a result of any police action prior to giving the statements sought to be suppressed. 173 Ill.2d at 121, ___ Ill.Dec. at ___, 670 N.E.2d at 687. In my view, such a cursory disposition of this serious issue avoids the key inquiry that this court must undertake in considering defendant's claim: Is there a substantial likelihood that the result of the suppression hearing would have differed if defense counsel produced evidence that linked the testifying officers who denied striking defendant to a widespread practice of abuse at Area 2? Certainly such information could have had a dramatic influence on the perceived credibility of all the witnesses who testified at the hearing to suppress the codefendants' statements. The majority, however, chooses to disregard the impact such evidence might have had on witness credibility by merely assuming that the trial court would have made the same findingthat defendant was not injured by police while in custodyeven if there had been a strong showing of systematic prisoner abuse by the officers at Area 2 who interrogated defendant. The majority also ignores the fact that photographs of defendant's and Thompson's injuries were admitted at the suppression hearing. I do not believe that the majority can fairly dispose of the issue solely by relying on the trial court's original finding at the suppression hearing; i.e., that defendant had not established physical injury caused by police officers. The issue of police coercion in the post-conviction petition is presented in the context of ongoing and systematic abuse at Area 2, an issue which was not present at the suppression hearing. To arrive at the conclusion the majority reaches it is necessary to either ignore the materials included in the post-conviction petition or to conclude that they lack probative value under the specific circumstances of defendant's claim. It may be true, as the State insists in its brief, that the post-conviction materials regarding the allegedly widespread abusive practices at Area 2 are irrelevant to defendant's claim and thus would be deemed inadmissible at an evidentiary hearing. However, the requirements for determining whether an evidentiary hearing should be held differ from the application of the rules of evidence at such an evidentiary hearing. At this stage of the proceedings I believe it is inappropriate to affirm dismissal of this post-conviction claim by merely conjecturing that some or all of the proffered evidence would be subject to evidentiary challenges at a hearing. Moreover, the majority expresses no opinion as to the probative value of this evidence, choosing instead to merely repeat the trial court's finding at the suppression hearing that defendant was not coerced, through police abuse, to give his statement relating to the Bracy homicide. By its ruling, the majority assumes that the availability of evidence tending to cast doubt on the veracity of the testifying officers would not have changed the outcome of the suppression hearing. It is not my purpose in this dissent to imply that a defendant's bare allegation of physical abuse during interrogation is grounds for new trial or post-conviction relief. For practical reasons, if a defendant's assertion of physical abuse by police is uncorroborated by other evidence, such as medical records, photographs, or third-party observation, the defendant's claim of coerced confession may fail. See, e.g., In re Lamb, 61 Ill.2d 383, 336 N.E.2d 753 (1975); People v. Johnson, 44 Ill.2d 463, 256 N.E.2d 343 (1970). Nonetheless, this court has held that the State bears the burden of establishing by the preponderance of the evidence that a defendant's confession was voluntary ( e.g., People v. Wilson, 116 Ill.2d 29, 38, 106 Ill.Dec. 771, 506 N.E.2d 571 (1987)). If the only evidence of coercion is defendant's testimony, and that testimony is contradicted by witnesses for the prosecution, the trial court may choose to believe the State's witnesses. E.g., People v. La Frana, 4 Ill.2d 261, 267, 122 N.E.2d 583 (1954). However, where it is evident or undisputed that defendant received injuries while in police custody and the only question is how and why the injuries were sustained, more than mere denial of coercion by the police is necessary ( La Frana, 4 Ill.2d at 267, 122 N.E.2d 583) and the State will be held to the higher standard of establishing, by clear and convincing evidence, that such injuries were not inflicted by police officers to induce defendant's confession ( Wilson, 116 Ill.2d at 40, 106 Ill.Dec. 771, 506 N.E.2d 571). In Wilson, the State's witnesses, including the police officers, the assistant State's Attorney, and the court reporter who took defendant's statement, all testified under oath that defendant was not threatened or harmed by the police. The trial court denied the motion to suppress. Compelling evidence contradicting the court's conclusion that defendant's confession was not coerced led this court, in the direct appeal, to reverse the conviction and remand the case for a new trial. The evidence of record included testimony that defendant did not have noticeable injuries before the interrogation and the testimony of doctors who examined the defendant directly after his interrogation and discovered significant burns, cuts, and bruises on his face, chest, and legs. See also People v. Banks, 192 Ill.App.3d 986, 140 Ill.Dec. 115, 549 N.E.2d 766 (1989) (reversing for new trial where fact of defendant's injuries while in police custody was corroborated by evidence including medical testimony, and the police officers' explanation that defendant accidentally fell down the stairs was deemed insufficient to sustain the State's burden of establishing voluntary nature of confession by clear and convincing evidence). In the instant case there is less evidence of actual injury to defendant than existed in the Wilson and Banks cases. Nonetheless, it does not appear accurate to conclude, as the majority does here, that there was no evidence corroborating defendant's claim of physical abuse and coercion. During the suppression hearing the court was presented with photographs and codefendants' testimony regarding the alleged physical abuse. While the trial court's finding of no injury attributable to police officers may have been supported by the evidence presented and thus within the scope of the trial court's discretion based on the facts before it, the precise issue before this court is not a mere revisiting of the original suppression hearing. Cf. People v. Hobley, 159 Ill.2d 272, 294-95, 202 Ill.Dec. 256, 637 N.E.2d 992 (1994) (on direct appeal, where no evidence existed to link defendant's chest bruise to abusive tactics of police while interrogating defendant, trial court's denial of motion to suppress was not an abuse of discretion). We are not reviewing the voluntariness of the confession upon direct appeal. Rather, the question is whether the outcome of the suppression hearing likely would have differed if the same officers who told the court they did not harm defendant had been subject to impeachment based on evidence revealing a pattern of abusive tactics employed by them in the interrogation of other defendants. Unlike my colleagues, I cannot simply conclude that the trial court's findings at the suppression hearing, based on the information then available, compels this court's holding that defendant, by these tangential allegations, has failed to make a substantial showing that his constitutional rights were violated. 173 Ill.2d at 121, 219 Ill.Dec. at 9, 670 N.E.2d at 687. My examination of the pertinent transcripts reveals that the post-conviction judge apparently foreclosed further inquiry into the issue of Area 2 abuse before the amended post-conviction petition was filed. During a court session in which defendant's motion for substitution of judges was presented, and denied without comment, defense counsel sought leave to issue discovery subpoenas in order to fully prepare the amended petition. The transcript indicates that the State's Attorney was willing to satisfy subpoena requests involving matters within the control of the State, including a copy of the Burge report. However, the circuit court judge, expressing his intent to narrow the issues, spontaneously and somewhat cryptically announced his views on the alleged abuse at Area 2: I specifically don't care what John Burge did at Area 2. I don't think John Burge had anything to do with this case whatsoever. We are not going to retry the Wilson case in this courtroom, and I wouldn't turn any of that stuff over if I were the People of the State of Illinois.    I am going to tell you it is not going to come out in a hearing here. That has been gone through four or five times in other courts. It is not going through this courtroom. John Burge probably doesn't have a clue who Andrew Maxwell is. That's out. That's out. The above opinion was interjected by the post-conviction judge during a routine discussion of discovery matters. The State had not presented its motion to dismiss defendant's petition at that time and had not expressed an objection to the subpoenas in issue when the judge offered the above remarks. The judge denied defendant's request to obtain certain discovery in advance of the hearing on the State's motion to dismiss the post-conviction petition and instead reserved ruling on the subpoenas until after the hearing on the motion to dismiss. The judge further indicated to the parties that he considered most of the other issues in the post-conviction petition to be barred by waiver and res judicata. The court then suggested that the State concentrate its motion to dismiss on the single issue of ineffective assistance of trial counsel during the sentencing proceedings. The judge's remarks reflect his intent to curtail inquiry into defendant's claim of police coercion at Area 2. Although a challenge to the admissibility of some of the materials might be well founded, I do not believe that the issue raised in defendant's petition and supported by the numerous exhibits has been given a fair evaluation by either the circuit court or this court. I cannot discount as irrelevant the materials presented in the post-conviction petition that tend to support the inference that repeated and egregious abuses on the part of at least certain police officers occurred at Area 2 headquarters contemporaneous to the time in which defendant was being interrogated about the Bracy homicide. Without hearing evidence, no court can conclusively determine whether, and to what extent, the individual officers who interrogated defendant may have participated in routine interrogation abuse and whose credibility at the suppression hearing might have been impeached as a result. For the reasons stated, I would remand this cause to the circuit court for an evidentiary hearing on the claims discussed herein.