Opinion ID: 1111564
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: did the court err in admitting the statements?

Text: The appellants' arguments under this assignment of error are numerous: they include the appellants' ages, their being held incommunicado, an alleged illegal arrest, lack of proof of the corpus delicti, continuing interrogation after the appellants refused to talk, refusal to write down earlier statements, and lack of education. Thus, the appellant argues, the State failed to prove the admissibility of the confessions beyond a reasonable doubt. The trial judge made extensive findings in his overruling of the motion to suppress the appellants' statements, set out in pertinent part, below: In this case, the evidence indicates that these three  two Defendants  two male Defendants, were arrested on November the 3rd, 1984, and that they were confined in the jail in Neshoba County... . In the case of the statement of Gregory Tubby, Gregory Tubby, according to the evidence, was 21 years old. The evidence indicates that he received an education, and if I remember correctly, a 12th grade education. There is evidence that he was confined in the drunk tank. The evidence is in conflict regarding the sleeping arrangement in the drunk tank, and although argument is made that the confinement in the drunk tank had affect upon the voluntariness of this statement, the Defendant did not testify that being confined in that drunk tank had any affect (sic) upon him in giving that statement on the 6th day of November. The evidence is in conflict regarding that statement, and whether or not he had asked leave of those officers and told them that he wanted to make a statement. The argument is made that he was a Choctaw Indian, 17 years old. The Mississippi Supreme Court has addressed itself upon the issue of age, and upon the issue of mental ability to freely and voluntarily make a statement. In those cases, the Trial Judges were assisted by the testimony of psychologists, school teachers, and others as to the ability to understand. I only have, in this case, the testimony of the three Defendants, and the argument that they are Choctaw Indians and cannot understand. This Court is required, in the case of a 17 year old, to look at the totality of the circumstances. This Court does not accept the argument that Choctaws cannot understand as well as whites, or that Harrison Johnson did not understand simply because he was Choctaw. To the contrary, I observed Harrison Johnson testify on yesterday. He was very alert, very intelligent, and I was very impressed about his understanding of the English language, and his ability to express himself in English, although he stated that English was a language secondary to the Choctaw language. Therefore, the Defendant, the State having the burden of proving the admissibility of these statements beyond reasonable doubt as to being freely and voluntarily made, this Court is of the opinion, considering the totality of all the circumstances in this case, the testimony that this Court has contested [sic] the voluntariness of the evidence, or at least the lack of evidence, is of the opinion that the confessions are competent evidence, with the right allowed, of course, for the Defendants to develop the same facts and circumstances for the jury to place whatever weight they desire upon the statements. Once the trial judge determines that a confession is admissible, his finding becomes a finding of fact which will not be reversed on appeal unless it is manifestly in error or contrary to the overwhelming evidence. Cabello v. State, 490 So.2d 852, 856 (Miss. 1986). In Cabello, the confession of a 15-year-old boy was upheld as admissible, thus negatively addressing the appellants' assertion here that Harrison's confession should have been excluded because he was 17. Another point raised by the appellants is their that their arrest was illegal. That allegation is made on page 11 of the Appellant's Brief; however, it is simply a bare statement, not supported by authorities in either the initial brief or the reply brief. Neither was an objection raised at trial to the arrest. Therefore, the standard of review for a confession obtained after an illegal arrest, see Carter v. State, 473 So.2d 471 (Miss. 1985), need not be applied. The appellants also stated in their brief that The corpus delicti must be proven before a confession can be received in evidence. Assuming that this is an assertion that the corpus delicti was not adequately proven at trial, we note that no objection was raised to the admission of the statements on this ground at trial. Even if we were to consider this point, however, there would be no error. The order of proof was as follows: Clyde Thompson, the neighbor who testified to witnessing the attack; L.J. Pace, a Philadelphia policeman who testified to finding Edward John in the street with no vital signs, and Bobby Anderson, Philadelphia's Chief Investigator, who also testified as to the condition of Edward's body, and through whom the statements were introduced. The general requirements for proof of corpus delicti may be described as proof, first, that a certain result has been produced ... and, second, that someone is criminally responsible for the result. 30 Am.Jur.2d Evidence § 1140 (1967). As we stated in Burkhalter v. State, 302 So.2d 503, 504-05 (Miss. 1974), while the general rule mandates proof of corpus delicti before introduction of the confession, the rule is not inflexible. Thus, while the better practice would have been to have the pathologist testify before the admission of the statements, we find that the failure to do so in this case did not constitute reversible error. The appellants also assert that interrogation continued after they refused to talk. The record does not bear this out, since after the initial refusal to give a statement other waivers were signed by Harrison and Gregory before the subsequent statements were made. This is akin to the situation in Neal v. State, 451 So.2d 743 (Miss. 1984), where the accused stopped the interrogation at one point, only to give a complete statement  after a waiver  the next day. Notwithstanding an earlier valid waiver of his privilege against self-incrimination and his right to counsel, an accused may revoke that waiver ... Following such a revocation, the accused may re-waive his rights. Id. at 755. The next argument against admissibility is that the officers did not include into the statements the original remarks of Gregory regarding the fact that Edward was hitting Mary. Even if the failure to include this statement in Gregory's confession was error, it was harmless in light of the fact that Harrison's statement included the sentence: The reason I got into it with them I was tired of Edward whipping my Mother. I was trying to stop it. The appellants also assert their lack of education as a barrier to the admissibility of their statements. The record shows that Harrison went through the tenth grade and Gregory graduated from high school. Howard Neal had an I.Q. of 54 and never went beyond the second grade, yet this Court refused to reverse the trial judge's ruling on the voluntariness of his confession. 451 So.2d at 756. We reach the same result here. The most damaging argument against admitting these statements is the uncontradicted testimony that neither Harrison Johnson nor Gregory Tubby saw a friend or relative from the time they were incarcerated on November 3rd until they gave their statements on November 6th. Although several officers denied telling the visitors that they could not see the young men, only one, Sheriff Waddell, actually testified that they had visitors. He later recanted that testimony, saying, No, I didn't never make that statement that they did visit. I don't know. They were just there. Incommunicado detention, in itself, will not invalidate a confession, but it may suggest strongly that the statement was involuntary. Thus, in In Interest of Dollar, 293 So.2d 458 (Miss. 1974), this Court reversed the conviction of a youth who was confined without access to friends or family until he confessed, and then was denied the opportunity to testify on the voluntariness of his statement. It seems doubtful, to state the matter as mildly as possible, that a confession obtained under these circumstances from a 14-year-old boy can be described as `volunatry.' Id. at 459. Here, of course, we deal with a 17-year-old and a 22-year-old. We also have the extensive findings of the trial court  made after a full hearing on the voluntariness of the confessions  in which the trial judge found that they were admissible. Nevertheless, we deplore the actions, if any, of the law enforcement personnel involved in this case in denying these young men any access to family or outside help. Even the most brave among us could be overwhelmed by a three-day confinement in jail, surrounded by hostile strangers, and denied the support of our loved ones. These tactics might be appropriate in the gulag, but they are unacceptable in law enforcement in this state. However, we are constrained in this case to affirm the trial court's finding that the statements elicited from Harrison Johnson and Gregory Tubby were voluntary in the absence of any evidence that he was manifestly in error. While the incommunicado detention degrades our confidence in this finding, we still cannot say that the overwhelming weight of the evidence points towards the confessions being involuntary. Thus, we do not reverse on this assignment of error.