Opinion ID: 275418
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the incriminating statements

Text: 3 While in the emergency room of the hospital, police officers questioned Wilson about the death of his wife. The most damaging testimony is set out in the margin. 2 This testimony was elicited at the trial without objection having been interposed to the question. Counsel's objection related only to the expression of opinion by the officer, i. e., attempting to say what the Wilson statement indicated. At the time Wilson made the statement, he had not been charged with the murder of his wife and no warrant had been served upon him. Some several hours later he was served with a warrant charging him with murder and was again questioned and his responses offered in evidence at the trial, again without objection. On this second occasion, Wilson denied his guilt and said in effect that he knew nothing about the slaying. 4 We are not here concerned with the recent doctrines enunciated in Escobedo v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964), and Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Those decisions apply only to cases in which trial began after the decisions were announced. Johnson v. State of New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966). 5 The statements made in the second interrogation were exculpatory — a valid distinction prior to Miranda, and that fact adequately explains the failure of counsel to interpose objection. See Miranda v. State of Arizona, supra, 384 U.S. at 476, 86 S.Ct. at 1629, 16 L.Ed. 2d at 725. 6 The prior statement, made before Wilson was charged with murder and before the warrant was served, came in without objection by admittedly competent counsel. We cannot say even with hindsight that the decision was bad trial strategy. Counsel might well have preferred to have all of the statement rather than to have none of it. 3 We may judicially notice that every competent trial lawyer in North Carolina knows that the contemporaneous objection rule obtains in this State, i. e., that failure to object to evidence is ordinarily a waiver. See Stansbury, North Carolina Evidence § 27, at 49-52 (2 ed. 1963). 7 Unlike the situation in Henry v. State of Mississippi, 379 U.S. 443, 85 S.Ct. 564, 13 L.Ed.2d 408 (1965), there was here no motion for directed verdict on the ground of an illegally obtained incriminating statement which can be said to have notified the trial judge of the possibility of an unconstitutional trial. At no time during the entire trial was the judge's attention directed or invited to the question of whether unlawfully obtained evidence had been received. 8 We think this a case of deliberate by-passing by counsel of the contemporaneous objection rule as a part of trial strategy which bars subsequent assertion of the federal ground. See Henry v. State of Mississippi, supra, 379 U.S. at 451-452, 85 S.Ct. 564, 569. 9 Entirely aside from waiver, we think the first statement (which was the only incriminating one), tested by pre- Escobedo and Miranda standards, was voluntary. The record does not indicate that at that time suspicion had focused on Wilson. The questions propounded were put to Wilson in the presence of the attending physician. He was not in custody. There were no threats and no physical or psychological coercion. Nor does it appear that Wilson was so physically ill as to rob him of conscious control of his responses. Nor is the evidence suggesting the possibility that Wilson was insane at the time he made the incriminating statement at all compelling as it was in Blackburn v. State of Alabama, 361 U.S. 199, 207, 80 S.Ct. 274, 4 L.Ed.2d 242 (1960). 10 In Blackburn the involuntariness of the confession was conclusively demonstrated during the trial, whereas the voluntariness of Wilson's statement was not even questioned until post-conviction hearing. Blackburn v. State of Alabama, supra, 361 U.S. at 210, 80 S.Ct. 274. Blackburn was arrested and questioned for some eight or nine hours in a tiny room    literally filled with police officers. Blackburn v. State of Alabama, supra, 361 U.S. at 207, 80 S.Ct. at 280. Moreover, in Blackburn the incriminating statement was admitted over repeated objections of counsel.