Opinion ID: 2738561
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admission of the Defendant’s Confessions

Text: The defendant contends that the admission of his custodial statements violated his rights under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and article I, sections 7 and 9 of the Tennessee Constitution. In particular, the defendant claims that: (a) his warrantless arrest was not supported by probable cause; (b) his confession to police officers was the fruit of his illegal arrest; (c) his confession to police officers was 17 The text of the relevant statutes has not changed since the time of trial; thus, citations are to the current statute. -45- coerced after he had invoked his right to remain silent; and (d) his confession to his mother should have been suppressed because she was acting as an agent of the police. The defendant concedes both that he did not file a pretrial motion to suppress and that he did not raise any of these issues in his motion for new trial. The State argues that the defendant forfeited his right to appellate review of these issues by failing to raise them in a pretrial motion to suppress, as required by Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(b)(2)(C), which states that “a motion to suppress evidence” is among those motions that “must be raised before trial.” The State says that not even plain error review applies when a defendant fails to file a pretrial suppression motion. As support for this argument the State relies on federal decisions construing the identical language of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(b)(3)(C) as precluding even plain error review on appeal when a defendant fails to make a pretrial motion to suppress. See, e.g., United States v. Burke, 633 F.3d 984, 987-88 (10th Cir. 2011); United States v. Yousef, 327 F.3d 56, 125 (2d Cir. 2003); United States v. Chavez-Valencia, 116 F.3d 127, 129-134 (5th Cir. 1997). Among other things, the State argues that unless a defendant files a pretrial motion to suppress, the State may not have an opportunity to establish that the challenged evidence was seized lawfully because the evidence relevant to the suppression issue may not be admissible and relevant to an issue at trial. 1. Failure to File Pretrial Motions to Suppress in Capital Cases This Court has previously faced the issue of whether appellate review in a capital case extends to suppression issues raised for the first time on appeal. In State v. Duncan, 698 S.W.2d 63 (Tenn. 1985), Mr. Duncan “never moved to suppress” his “statements, fingerprints, blood and saliva tests obtained as the result of [his] detention.” Id. at 68. When he challenged the admission of this evidence for the first time on appeal, the State argued that review was foreclosed because the issue had been waived. Id. at 67-68. This Court disagreed, stating that where a “defendant is under sentence of death, this [C]ourt is under the duty to ‘automatically’ review the sentence.” Id. (quoting Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-2- 205(a) (currently codified at Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-206(a)(1) (2010)). As a result, the Duncan Court explained that “there is no waiver of error directed to the admissibility of evidence when the defendant is under sentence of death.” Duncan, 698 S.W.2d at 68; see also State v. Nesbit, 978 S.W.2d 872, 880-81 (Tenn. 1998) (holding that, given the statutory mandate directing this Court to review capital convictions and sentences, a defendant’s failure to file a motion for new trial does not deprive this Court of jurisdiction to review issues that should have been raised in a motion for new trial). The Duncan Court cautioned, however, that “review of an alleged error is handicapped at times by the failure of trial counsel to object to the introduction of evidence, as his failure too often deprives the opposing party of the opportunity to remove any question as to the competency and relevancy -46- of questioned evidence.” Duncan, 698 S.W.2d at 68. Because Mr. Duncan had failed to make a pretrial motion or trial objection either challenging the admissibility of the evidence as fruit of an illegal arrest or arguing that Mr. Duncan’s statements were obtained in violation of his constitutional rights, the Duncan Court determined that proof had not been “directed by either party so as to delineate fully the circumstances surrounding [Mr. Duncan’s] detention, arrest, and interrogation.” Id. Consequently, the Court concluded that “nothing in the record” supported Mr. Duncan’s contentions. Id. Nine years later, this Court applied Duncan in another capital case in which a defendant challenged for the first time on appeal the admission of his statements on the basis that the statements were obtained in violation of his constitutional rights. State v. Bigbee, 885 S.W.2d 797 (Tenn. 1994), superseded by statute on other grounds as stated in State v. Odom,137 S.W.3d 572, 580-81 (Tenn. 2004). Mr. Bigbee had failed to make a motion to suppress, failed to object to the admission of the statements at trial, and failed to raise the issue in his motion for new trial. However, relying on Duncan, Mr. Bigbee argued that “the appellate review mandated by [statute] require[d] this Court to consider any alleged error, whether called to the trial court’s attention or not.” Bigbee, 855 S.W.2d at 805. This Court addressed Mr. Bigbee’s argument as follows: [W]e have reviewed the record in this case in light of the defendant’s complaint and conclude that here, as in [Duncan], there is nothing in the record to support the contentions of [Mr. Bigbee]. In the absence of an objection or motion challenging the evidence on the grounds now asserted, the proof was not focused by either party so as to delineate fully the critical issue . . . . Id. The statute obligating this Court to review automatically a defendant’s conviction of first degree murder and sentence of death has not changed since our decisions in Duncan and Bigbee. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-206 (2010). Not only is this Court still obligated to conduct such a review, the statute now also obligates the Court of Criminal Appeals to review capital cases. Id. Thus, with respect to capital cases, the State has presented no basis for reconsidering our prior decisions, which held that a defendant in a capital case does not entirely forfeit appellate review by failing to make a pretrial motion to suppress.18 When 18 Our holding in this regard is limited to capital cases. We note that in non-capital cases, to which the statutory duty of automatic review does not apply, the Court of Criminal Appeals has held that trial courts should not entertain motions to suppress that are not filed prior to trial. See, e.g., State v. Randolph, 692 S.W.2d 37, 40 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1985); State v. Wilson, 611 S.W.2d 843, 846-47 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1980); (continued...) -47- suppression issues are raised for the first time on appeal in capital cases, we will continue to apply plain error review, as the Court of Criminal Appeals did in this case.19 As Duncan and Bigbee illustrate, however, a defendant who fails to file a pretrial motion to suppress and make a record in the trial court will have difficulty prevailing on appeal when plain error review is applied. 2. Plain Error Review When conducting plain error review, this Court will grant relief only when the following five prerequisites are satisfied: (1) the record clearly establishes what occurred in the trial court; (2) a clear and unequivocal rule of law was breached; (3) a substantial right of the accused was adversely affected; (4) the accused did not waive the issue for tactical reasons; and (5) consideration of the error is necessary to do