Court Opinion

ID: 9683220
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:24:55.467385+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:46.440401
License: Public Domain

SIMON, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully submit that the majority ruling holding that Bill of Exception No. 3 is without merit is contrary to and in direct conflict with R.S. 15 :450, the text of which is as follows:
“Every confession, admission or declaration sought to be used against any one must be used in its entirety, so that the person to be affected thereby may have the benefit of any exculpation or explanation that the whole statement may afford.”
In connection with the testimony of the state witness Humble, an investigator for the district attorney’s office, employed for the purpose of secretly obtaining recorded admissions and statements from the defendants through the use of a Minifone, a wire recording device, which recorded statements and admissions were offered in evidence over objection, it appears that this witness admitted on cross-examination that such admissions and statements of the defendants were not taken in their entirety; that at times when he thought the admissions or statements were not pertinent or relevant to a criminal offense he would “cut off” the recording instrument for the reason that he “didn’t see any need in wasting a good wire”. In other words, he arrogated to himself the right of determining from the admissions and statements of the defendants what was culpable and what was not. This, in the words of the statute, supra, deprived the defendants of the benefit of any exculpation or explanation that the whole statements may have afforded in the light of guilt or innocence.