Opinion ID: 1918928
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: admissibility of the alleged inculpatory statement of defendant irene pickles

Text: In presenting Irene Pickles' inculpatory statement at the trial the State treated it as an admission presumably because it was not in writing and not cast in the usual shape of a formal confession. Consequently no effort was made to engage in the preliminary hearing usually pursued when a confession is involved for the purpose of obtaining a ruling from the court as to its voluntariness. In our judgment its inculpatory character was of such significant proportions, particularly in view of the manslaughter charge, that it should have been handled procedurally in the manner prescribed for proof of confessions. See, State v. Wolf, 44 N.J. 176, 193-194 (1965); State v. Sullivan, 43 N.J. 209, 224, 226 (1964); State v. Jackson, 43 N.J. 148, 166-167 (1964), certiorari denied Ravenell v. New Jersey, 379 U.S. 982, 85 S.Ct. 690, 13 L.Ed. 2 d 572 (1965); State v. Tassiello, 39 N.J. 282, 292 n. 2 (1963). It is true the defendants did not demand a preliminary hearing on the issue of voluntariness. The failure in that respect is mitigated considerably because their attorney was not aware before trial that an admission of such serious implications would be offered. Nor did they know of its nature until the first detective actually uttered the alleged words before the jury. Perhaps the proper, or at least advisable, course to be pursued at that moment was to request that the jury be excused and the preliminary hearing then instituted. But the matter had already been spread before the jury, and on the spur of the moment, defense counsel may have felt the better tactic was to let all the proof on the subject go in and endeavor to deal with the matter thereafter. In such situation an appellate court ordinarily should not penalize the defendants for failing to insist upon strict adherence to the procedural mechanics for introduction of a confession. Cf. Goldstein v. Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, 23 N.J. Super. 126 ( App. Div. 1952). The record shows, however, that when the State had completed the testimony of its witnesses to Mrs. Pickles' admission, defendants moved to strike it on the ground that the proof showed it did not meet the requirement of voluntariness. Again, at the close of the case when a motion for judgment of acquittal was made, defendants urged the admission should not be considered because it violated due process of law. Under the circumstances we put aside possible procedural impediments to a full review of the facts relating to the admissibility of Mrs. Pickles' alleged statement. At the time of the events which gave rise to this prosecution Mrs. Pickles was pregnant with her fourth child. The testimony shows that after Michael died and during the wake and funeral period she was not sleeping well, her stomach was upset, she had not been able to eat very much, and she felt dizzy. The funeral took place in Newark, New Jersey, where Mrs. Pickles' mother lived. After the interment defendants went back to Mrs. Pickles' mother's home where Calvin Pickles received a telephone call from Ocean County Detective Couch asking him and his wife to come to the prosecutor's office in Toms River that afternoon. Pickles was reluctant to bring his wife because of her condition and inquired if it was necessary to come that day. He testified that Couch told him to come down; there was nothing to worry about, just some forms had to be filled out. Defendants complied and drove to Toms River arriving there around 2:30 P.M. on October 16. On their arrival at the prosecutor's office Detectives Kennedy and Couch took Calvin Pickles into a room variously called a squad room or interrogation room, for questioning. The room was not a large one; it was described by Detective Couch as a square room, about eight feet by 17 or 18 feet. Mrs. Pickles was told to sit outside in a hall or corridor. The questioning took 35 minutes to 40 minutes. Then Mrs. Pickles was asked to come in. During the examination of some of the witnesses and in argument at the trial, defense counsel suggested that Calvin Pickles was denied permission to be with his wife while she was being questioned by the detectives. The assistant prosecutor opposed this on the ground that the testimony was being misquoted. In this connection the examination of Detective Kennedy shows: Q. The door was closed, was it not, to the room?
Q. And Mr. Pickles was outside and she was inside? A. Yes, sir. Q. Had Mr. Pickles been in the room before? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you recall Mr. Pickles saying anything about he wants to be in with his wife? A. Yes, sir. Q. Was that after you opened the door? A. This was before the interview started with Mrs. Pickles. Q. And why didn't you permit him in the room with his wife? A. Because we wanted to interrogate them separately. It may be noted at this point also, that later in the trial when Mrs. Pickles was being cross-examined, she said: They had no right to leave me alone there, to treat me that way. I wanted my husband and they wouldn't bring him in. A further circumstance about to be discussed gives rise to a strong inference that the detectives had doubt as to whether Mrs. Pickles was capable physically and emotionally at the time to undergo police interrogation. Before the questioning began Detective Kennedy went into a county courtroom and asked Mrs. Thelma Barney, a uniformed court officer or court matron, to leave her duties there and come into the interrogation room. Mrs. Barney had been a court officer for some time. She was connected with the Sheriff's department and assigned to the courts, not to the prosecutor's office. Her usual duties were to swear in witnesses at trials, take care of jurors, and give aid to persons who became emotionally upset. All she knew specifically about the Pickles matter was that she was called into the prosecutor's office to be with a person that was brought in there for questioning. On leaving her post she brought some ammoniated pellets with her. On entering the room she saw Detective Kennedy sitting in a chair on one side of a table. Mrs. Pickles was seated in a chair on the other side of the table, about six or seven feet away. Detective Couch was seated in a corner of the room. Mrs. Barney testifying for the State said that Mrs. Pickles was sobbing, shaking a lot, trembling, very nervous and upset. Her hand was trembling. So Mrs. Barney sat down alongside her and took the trembling hand. In addition, as it might calm her, Mrs. Barney took an ammoniated pellet, broke it and handed it to Mrs. Pickles to move back and forth under her nose. As she gave the pellet to Mrs. Pickles she said: Take this and maybe this will calm you a little. But even after using the pellet Mrs. Pickles was still shaking and still very much upset. That was the situation when Detective Kennedy commenced the interrogation. No testimony was introduced by the State to show that either detective advised Mrs. Pickles before interrogating her that she was not obliged to answer their questions, or that if she did answer, anything she said might be used against her. According to Mrs. Barney, Kennedy questioned Mrs. Pickles first, and then Couch questioned her. The witness did not recollect very much about the questions; she was paying attention to [Mrs. Pickles]. She was so nervous, and Mrs. Barney was there to give her help, aid. Mrs. Barney did remember that several times the questions related to urine burns. During the questioning Mrs. Pickles was sobbing a lot and trying to answer questions. The witness believed she was comprehending the questions being asked; she seemed all right that way; she was answering questions. At another point in the questioning Mrs. Barney asked Mrs. Pickles if she would like some aromatic spirits of ammonia. In some manner, she did not know how, someone got word to a Mrs. Tilton, another court officer, and she appeared with a glass containing the ammonia. It is not clear when this occurred. At one time Mrs. Barney said Mrs. Tilton arrived after a little bit of questioning by the detectives. At another time she said that during the interrogation, although again it is not clear as to how long after the questioning began, Mrs. Pickles said: I put him in hot water. I wanted to correct him. On cross-examination Mrs. Barney said this admission was, maybe, I would say, ten minutes before she made this statement, that she had the ammonia. Then: `Q. You mean she had the ammonia before? A. Yes. Q. And the capsule before? A. Well, I gave her the capsule as soon as I came into the room. On direct examination she had said the statement was made before the drink of spirits of ammonia was given; that after making the admission Mrs. Pickles seemed calm for a few minutes, then became very nervous again, as the result of which the drink was obtained for her. Then she asked for her husband and Calvin Pickles was allowed to come into the room. Detective Kennedy said Detective Couch had called the funeral home in Newark and requested the Pickleses to come to the prosecutor's office that afternoon They arrived about 2:30 P.M. and Calvin Pickles was questioned first by Detective Couch and then by himself for about 30 minutes in the interrogation room. Then Mr. Pickles was sent out of the room and Mrs. Pickles brought in. As has been noted above, Kennedy refused to allow the husband to remain during the interrogation of his wife. Kennedy said Couch questioned Mrs. Pickles first, then he questioned her, and then Couch began to question her again. They went over the story with her about the urine burns on her son, about bathing him and the treatment she gave for the burns before seeking medical aid. She told him she had bathed Michael in warm water, then under questioning she said it might have been hot. When Couch took up the questioning again to clarify her story, she broke down completely and told them she had put the child in hot water to punish him. At this time she was sobbing and emotionally upset. He asked if she wanted a doctor or a priest, but he insisted that was after she made the admission. Couch testified: I suppose you could say she was hysterical; it was quite possible that she was distraught. Contrary to Mrs. Barney's testimony, Couch said Mrs. Pickles was composed until she made the inculpatory statement. Then she broke down, became hysterical and called for her husband. Kennedy did not see any first aid administered by Mrs. Barney to Mrs. Pickles. He remembered going out of the room once during the questioning, and he knew a second court matron, Mrs. Tilton, came into the room, but he did not see her administer any first aid to Mrs. Pickles. Couch testified that he asked Mrs. Pickles if she wanted a priest but denied he added so you can confess. On being asked if any treatment or first aid was given in the room, he said None. I don't recall that she required any. She was asked. He knew the matron Mrs. Barney was in the room all the time, and that at one time, but after Mrs. Pickles had admitted giving Michael a hot bath, another court matron, Mrs. Tilton, came in and gave assistance to the matron that was present. But he did not know what either or both of them did for Mrs. Pickles. He did not watch; he had no idea what they did. In view of the testimony of Mrs. Barney and the confined area where the questioning took place, a room eight feet by 17 or 18 feet, occupied as it was at all times by four persons, and during the time of and to the extent of Mrs. Tilton's appearance therein, by five persons, it is simply incredible that the detectives did not see and did not know either that first aid was given to Mrs. Pickles, or of what it consisted. After the testimony of the detectives and the court matron, Mrs. Barney, had been completed, defendants moved to strike the admission from the record on the ground that the circumstances under which it was taken were so fundamentally unfair as to render it involuntary and inadmissible. In passing on the question the court said among other things that Mrs. Pickles was questioned for something less than an hour; further: Now, there is no question but that she was distraught. However, the fact that she was distraught does not impair her ability to commit herself. It may affect her credibility, but it does not affect the admissibility, because it was not shown that her will was overcome. The motion was denied. During the defense both defendants testified about the interrogation by Detectives Couch and Kennedy. Mrs. Pickles said when she was taken into the room for questioning, she was upset, trembling, confused and crying. She had not been able to sleep or eat much. Both detectives were there and the court matron came in and sat with her. They went over and over her account of Michael's condition. They suggested she put him in hot water to punish him. They asked whether she would feel better if she had a priest; she could make her confession to him. She said her mind kept wandering under the questioning. She had asked for her husband; she asked again and kept asking; she said she wanted to go home. Finally she screamed for him and ultimately they allowed him to come in. The questioning then ceased and they were asked to come back the next day. She denied making the admission she had put her son in hot water to punish him. Calvin Pickles said he was told to sit outside while the detectives questioned his wife. After a while he heard his wife scream and he knocked on the door of the room. The door was locked. Detective Kennedy opened it, saw him and closed it again. He could hear his wife crying. He heard her say: I didn't do it. I didn't do anything like that. About ten minutes later Kennedy opened the door and informed Mr. Pickles his wife wanted to see him. He said also that Mrs. Pickles admitted she had put Michael in hot water to punish him. Pickles asked her immediately if she had said anything like that and she denied it. Then in response to his request the detectives said he could take his wife home. But they were asked to come back the next day. It took about ten minutes to calm his wife down before she could leave. She was shaking, nervous, and not able to stand up. He took her home where his mother undressed her and put her to bed until they thought she was able to travel. Then they brought her to his mother's home in Keansburg, N.J. The next day they came back to the prosecutor's office as directed, but there was no further interrogation and they declined to give any written statements. They returned to Calvin Pickles' mother's home. On arrival Mrs. Pickles was upset and shaking and could not keep anything on her stomach. Pickles' mother called Dr. Rudnick of Keyport that night. He gave her a sedative and prescribed some pills. At the close of all the testimony the motion to strike the confession evidence was not renewed specifically. A Motion was made for a judgment of acquittal and during the course of the argument thereon, it was urged that such evidence was improper and violative of due process. The motion was denied and the issue of voluntariness of the statement was submitted to the jury for determination. Although, as we have already indicated, the record with respect to the alleged incriminatory statement is not as symmetrical as procedural regularity ordinarily calls for, in our judgment the issue of its competency must be determined. We are satisfied on the State's own proof that the alleged statement should not have been admitted. In our judgment that proof did not show it to be voluntary. On the contrary in our view the circumstances under which it was obtained were so fundamentally unfair as to transgress Irene Pickles' due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The voluntariness of inculpatory admissions is not tested only by the presence or absence of violence or threats to the accused or by whether there were direct or implied promises to him of reward or benefit. Admissibility depends also on the nature of the interrogation, and whether psychological coercion or duress or imposition was practiced by law enforcement authorities. In sum the competency of a confession not only depends upon compliance with the ordinary rules of evidence, but also upon the deeper requirement of fundamental fairness in the due process sense of the Fourteenth Amendment. State v. Driver, 38 N.J. 255, 281 (1962); State v. Fauntleroy, 36 N.J. 379 (1962); State v. Smith, 32 N.J. 501 (1960), certiorari denied 364 U.S. 936, 81 S.Ct. 383, 5 L.Ed. 2 d 367 (1961). As the United States Supreme Court said in Blackburn v. State of Alabama, 361 U.S. 199, 206-207, 80 S.Ct. 274, 4 L.Ed. 2 d 242, 248 (1960), the due process clause of the Federal Constitution forbids fundamental unfairness in obtaining confessions, whether they are true or false. Consequently, a confession so obtained cannot be introduced, irrespective of whether other evidence corroborates it or proves the guilt of the accused. Thus, in cases of involuntary confessions, this Court enforces the strongly felt attitude of our society that important human values are sacrificed where an agency of the government, in the course of securing a conviction, wrings a confession out of an accused against his will. This insistence upon putting the government to the task of proving guilt by means other than inquisition was engendered by historical abuses which are quite familiar. Production of evidence necessary to satisfy the burden imposed by this broad concept of voluntariness of confessions rests with the State and evaluation of that evidence in the first instance is the clear duty of the trial court. He is not at liberty to shift that responsibility to the shoulders of the jury. Moreover, appellate review of the issue must be searching and critical as well. State v. Driver, supra, 38 N.J., at p. 282. If upon such analysis at either level the State has not shown that the statement constituting the confession was the product of an essentially free and unconstrained choice, it must be rejected. See Culombe v. Connecticut, 367 U.S. 568, 602, 81 S.Ct. 1860, 1879, 6 L.Ed. 2 d 1037, 1057 (1961). Here, it is obvious that Irene Pickles' seriously inculpatory admission, if made, was extracted by basically unfair means. There can be no doubt that when she came to the prosecutor's office after her son's funeral, her condition, on the State's proof alone, was such that she was an easy prey to interrogative pressure. The need for the medication administered to her by the court matron, to which the detectives seemed to close their eyes, plainly revealed her physical and mental weakness, and should have been sufficient warning to stay their hand. The condition which was manifest to the matron was the product of her nature when exposed to stress. The trial court recognized her emotional weakness when subjected to the stress of the trial. On the motion for a new trial, which he denied, he said, although not in connection with admissibility of her confession: During the trial she had repeated seizures of hysterics which caused at least five recesses, some lasting a day; ambulances were called and doctors were called   . To submit such a woman to interrogation of the type described in the proof, and in the face of her condition as described by the court matron, was to trespass upon rudimentary principles of fairness. The trespass was aggravated by Detective Kennedy's deliberate exclusion of her husband from the interrogation room. That act served not only to further weaken her resistance, but to deprive her of an important and vital witness as well. Review of the circumstances attending the taking of the incriminating statement from Irene Pickles satisfies us they were so oppressively coercive and fundamentally unfair in their totality as to require the conclusion that the statement was not voluntary in the constitutional sense. See, State v. Naglee, 44 N.J. 209, 218-219 (1965). Therefore, the admission should have been stricken from the record on defendants' motion.