Opinion ID: 1228924
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Was the Second Interview Initiated Voluntarily?

Text: The trial court expressly found, based primarily upon defendant's maturity and sophistication, and her prior contacts with police and juvenile officers, that she voluntarily initiated the second interview. (4) We are not bound, of course, by that determination for it is clear that `As a reviewing court it is our duty to examine the uncontradicted facts to determine independently whether the trial court's conclusion of voluntariness was properly found.... In exercising this function the court recognizes that the burden is on the prosecution to show that a confession was voluntarily given without previous inducement, intimidation or threat....' [Citation.] Thus in making an independent examination of the record to ascertain whether defendant's statements were voluntary we follow a practice of the United States Supreme Court which is both well established ... and currently adhered to. [Citations.] ( People v. Sanchez (1969) 70 Cal.2d 562, 571-572 [75 Cal. Rptr. 642, 451 P.2d 74]; see People v. Haydel (1974) 12 Cal.3d 190, 198 [115 Cal. Rptr. 394, 524 P.2d 866]; People v. Randall, supra, 1 Cal.3d 948, 954.) With respect to conflicting testimony, of course, we accept that version of events which is most favorable to the People, to the extent that it is supported by the record. ( Ibid. ; accord People v. Duck Wong (1976) 18 Cal.3d 178, 187 [133 Cal. Rptr. 511, 555 P.2d 297]; People v. Carr (1972) 8 Cal.3d 287, 296 [104 Cal. Rptr. 705, 502 P.2d 513].) (2b) In the present case, unlike most other cases, we are not confronted with any conflict in the evidence regarding the events which transpired during defendant's first interview with the police, for that interview was tape recorded and a transcription thereof has been presented to us. (See People v. Brommel (1961) 56 Cal.2d 629, 632 [15 Cal. Rptr. 909, 364 P.2d 845], involving a similar situation.) Our independent review of this transcript convinces us that defendant's second interview was involuntary, a product of improper police threats and inducements made during the course of the first interview, which threats and inducements we describe after a discussion of the applicable law. (5) We have said that, If the confession was elicited by promises of benefit or leniency the evidence was inadmissible. [Citations.] ( People v. Carr, supra, 8 Cal.3d 287, 296; see People v. Hill (1967) 66 Cal.2d 536, 549 [58 Cal. Rptr. 340, 426 P.2d 908]; People v. Johnson (1969) 70 Cal.2d 469, 478-479 [74 Cal. Rptr. 889, 450 P.2d 265] [promises must be motivating cause of confession]; People v. Brommel, supra, 56 Cal.2d 629, 632 [same].) In Hill, we observed a line between mere police exhortation urging the suspect to talk to them, on the one hand, and express or implied offers of leniency, on the other; we explained that the distinction does not depend upon the bare language of inducement but rather upon the nature of the benefit to be derived by a defendant if he speaks the truth, as represented by the police. (P. 549.) We noted that When the benefit pointed out by the police to a suspect is merely that which flows naturally from a truthful and honest course of conduct, the subsequent statement will not be considered involuntarily made. ( Ibid. ) On the other hand, if ... the defendant is given to understand that he might reasonably expect benefits in the nature of more lenient treatment at the hands of the police, prosecution or court in consideration of making a statement, even a truthful one, such motivation is deemed to render the statement involuntary and inadmissible. The offer or promise of such benefit need not be expressed, but may be implied from equivocal language not otherwise made clear. [Citations.] ( Ibid ; see also People v. Nelson (1964) 224 Cal. App.2d 238, 250-251 [36 Cal. Rptr. 385].) Two cases which apply the foregoing general rules involved fact situations closely paralleling those in the present case. In People v. Johnson, supra, 70 Cal.2d 469, the officers informed a suspect (who was also a minor) that he had been accused of first degree murder and that he might go to the gas chamber. The officers exhorted the suspect to tell the truth, for the reason that no one would believe his denial of complicity. We noted that This appears to be more than merely pointing out to a suspect that which flows naturally from a truthful and honest course of conduct. It carries the implication that by cooperating and telling what actually happened he might not be accused of or found guilty of first degree murder (i.e., more lenient treatment by the court or jury). To someone unskilled and uncounseled in the law it might have offered a hope ... that he might be cleared of any serious charges. ... It stretches the imagination to believe that he knowingly and intelligently waived his right to be free from self-incrimination. (70 Cal.2d at p. 479, italics added.) We also observed that although defendant's status as a minor was not conclusive, it was relevant to the question of his maturity and awareness of his rights. ( Ibid. ; see also In re Dennis M. (1969) 70 Cal.2d 444, 462-463 [75 Cal. Rptr. 1, 450 P.2d 296] [minor's capacity to waive counsel depends on totality of circumstances shown on record]; People v. Lara (1967) 67 Cal.2d 365, 379 [62 Cal. Rptr. 586, 432 P.2d 202] [same].) In People v. Brommel, supra, 56 Cal.2d 629, the police informed the suspect that unless he changed his story (in which he denied that he had beaten his daughter), the officers would write the word liar on their report to the judge. We recognized that such conduct amounted to both a threat and an implied promise of leniency, rendering the subsequent confession inadmissible. (Pp. 633-634.) (2c) In the matter before us, the record reflects that the officers repeatedly branded defendant a liar, and advised her that unless she changed her statement and admitted the true extent of her complicity, she would be charged as a principal to murder and would face the death penalty. In addition to this direct, and partially false (Pen. Code, § 190.3) threat, the officers strongly implied that if defendant changed her story and admitted mere knowledge of the murder, she might be charged only as an accessory after the fact. At trial, defendant testified that she decided to make a second statement as a result of the pressure exerted by the officers during the first interview, including their references to the death penalty. We think the following facts are significant: Defendant, while doubtless sophisticated for her years, was a 16-year-old girl; the officers failed to respond to any of defendant's repeated requests for the assistance of counsel; there was a relatively short time span between the two interviews during some of which time defendant had remained in the officers' presence; during the first interview defendant had several times been called a liar; the death penalty had been improperly mentioned; there were implications for leniency in the principal vs. accessory conversation. Taken together, we think it fair to conclude from the record that the threats of punishment and the promises of leniency echoed in the continuum between the two conversations to a degree which renders her statements in the second interview involuntary and inadmissible. In addition, the record indicates that the filmed reenactment of the killing was a direct product of the statements made by defendant at the second interview, and likewise must be considered involuntary and inadmissible. ( People v. Johnson (1969) 70 Cal.2d 541, 547 [75 Cal. Rptr. 401, 450 P.2d 865, 43 A.L.R.3d 366] [second confession presumed a product of the first]; People v. Sanchez, supra, 70 Cal.2d 562, 574 [same].) The People have conceded that there was no break in the causative chain between the second interview and the filming. (6a) Finally, we must conclude that the error in admitting the foregoing evidence was prejudicial to defendant and constitutes ground for reversing the judgment. (7) Under present rules for determining the existence of prejudicial error, the improper introduction of a confession is considered reversible per se ( People v. Randall, supra, 1 Cal.3d 948, 958; People v. Fioritto, supra, 68 Cal.2d 714, 720), whereas wrongful introduction of an admission is deemed prejudicial unless the People show beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict ( Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18, 23-24 [17 L.Ed.2d 705, 710-711, 87 S.Ct. 824, 24 A.L.R.3d 1065]; People v. Spencer (1967) 66 Cal.2d 158-168 [57 Cal. Rptr. 163, 424 P.2d 715]; People v. Powell (1967) 67 Cal.2d 32, 56 [59 Cal. Rptr. 817, 429 P.2d 137]). We have described a confession as amounting to a declaration of defendant's intentional participation in a criminal act, whereas an admission is merely the recital of facts tending to establish guilt when considered with the remaining evidence in the case. ( People v. Fitzgerald (1961) 56 Cal.2d 855, 861 [17 Cal. Rptr. 129, 366 P.2d 481]; see People v. Powell, supra, at pp. 52-53.) (6b) Defendant's second interview and filmed reenactment of the killing of Mrs. Mills contained much exculpatory material and possessed more of the characteristics of an admission than a confession. In effect, defendant's statement in the matter before us indicated that she unintentionally killed Mrs. Mills while attempting to prevent her unprovoked assault on Sonny and herself. Nonetheless, we cannot say with confidence that introduction of this admission was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In the absence of defendant's admission, the prosecution had no direct proof of defendant's involvement with Mrs. Mills' death. (See People v. Haydel, supra, 12 Cal.3d 190, 202.) True, there was circumstantial evidence which linked defendant and Sonny with the crime, including their presence at the home of the deceased at or about the time of her death, their possession of various items of her property, and their forgery of some checks from her checkbook. But without defendant's admission, the jury might not have found that defendant killed Mrs. Mills or, alternatively, that such a killing was murder in the first degree. We think it significant that after the jury had taken the case under submission, it requested a second viewing of the filmed reenactment, suggesting the likely importance of that evidence to the jurors during their deliberations. The People contend that the prejudicial impact of defendant's admission was lessened by her own trial testimony, which substantially paralleled the events described in the statement and film. We may properly assume, however, that defendant's testimony was impelled by the prosecutor's introduction of her admission during the People's case in chief. (See People v. Powell, supra, 67 Cal.2d at p. 57, fn. 9; People v. Spencer, supra, 66 Cal.2d at pp. 163-164; People v. Stockman (1965) 63 Cal.2d 494, 502 [47 Cal. Rptr. 365, 407 P.2d 277].) It seems likely that defendant would not have admitted killing Mrs. Mills but for the erroneous introduction of the foregoing evidence. The judgment is reversed.