Court Opinion

ID: 9651480
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:19:56.753416+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:06.491916
License: Public Domain

NIX, Justice
(dissenting).
1 agree with the majority opinion reversing the suppression of appellee’s statement to his fellow inmate. However, I believe that it was also improper to suppress the statements made to appellee’s two women friends. The majority concludes that because the statements given to the women were “in the nature of amendment [s] to [the] previous [inadmissible] statement . . . there was a ‘real and direct causal connection’ between the two.” Moreover the majority finds that the statement to the women was tainted by the initial statement because appellee felt a “compulsion” to “come clean.”
In my view the statements to the women were totally voluntary and independent of the initial illegality and the exclusionary rule to curb improper police conduct should not be applied to these statements.
First it is important to note that this is not a case where the friends to whom the statements were made were acting on behalf of the police, compare Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964); Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246 (1964). Indeed in this case appellee requested that he be taken to see the women. He talked with them alone and the statements made to them were totally voluntary. Clearly if a defendant, in custody, makes statements which are not the result of initiated interrogation, those statements are admissible. See United States v. Mattson, 469 F.2d 1234, 1237 (9th Cir. 1972); United States v. Henderson, 469 F.2d 1074, 1075 (5th Cir. 1972) cert. denied 410 U.S. 985, 93 S.Ct. 1511, 36 L.Ed.2d 181 (1973); 62 Georgetown L.J. (1973).
Furthermore the majority has failed to adequately establish a direct causal connection between appellee’s ini*424tial statement and his statements to the women. The majority relies heavily on the fact that appellee felt compelled to use the women as intermediaries in order to “come clean” regarding misstatements in his initial statement. On the contrary the record reflects that appellee wished to speak to these women not because of the earlier statement, but rather because he wished to obtain advice and guidance concerning his predicament at that time. There is no evidence that he wished to tell the truth (i. e. “come clean”) at the time he voluntarily initiated the conversation with the women or that he was coerced by the police to speak to the women. It was only after this conversation occurred that the police were told that he wished to be candid and to correct certain misstatements in his prior statement to them.
In Commonwealth v. Greene, 456 Pa. 195, 317 A.2d 268 (1974) the writer of the majority opinion in the instant appeal wrote:
“. . . appellant’s'second statement was made after a time lapse of one and one half hours, in a different physical setting, to a different police officer; factors which we have recognized as significant in cleansing any taint from an earlier statement.” Id. at 198, 317 A.2d 270 citing Commonwealth v. Mitchell, 445 Pa. 461, 285 A.2d 93 (1971).
Here the evidence reveals that the statements were made voluntarily at the home of two friends; that the statements were made only to these friends who were not agents of, nor employed by the police; and that the statements were made at least nine hours after the inadmissible statements to the police. Moreover there is no evidence that there was any police coercion before the statements were made; nor is there evidence that when appellee made the statements to these women he was motivated to do so by the initial statement to the police. Indeed the desire to correct former misstatements and be candid after meeting with these friends further suggests *425that his motive in speaking with them was solely to obtain advice and counsel.
Under these facts I find no basis for applying an exclusionary rule designed to deter illegal police conduct. Accordingly I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which upholds the suppression of the statements to the two women.