Court Opinion

ID: 9715931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:20:24.196152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:39.982190
License: Public Domain

Oppeni-ieimer, J.,
filed the following opinion, dissenting in part, in which McWieeiams, J., concurred.
I agree with the majority that Escobedo should not operate retroactively on convictions that became final before it was announced and that it is unwise and undesirable that it should. But, in my opinion, Escobedo did not effect a change in the Maryland law applicable to this case. Under that law, on the *674facts as- we now have .them, I bélieve that Hyde’s confessions were not freely and voluntarily made and were, therefore, inadmissible.
■ On the remand of Hyde’s petition for post conviction relief for further findings of fact, Judge Jenifer, in the Circuit Court for .Baltimore County, found that, while Hyde did not ask for or solicit the assistance of counsel prior to giving his oral statement, he did at that time express a desire to consult counsel and his desire was ignored. In his opinion, Judge Jenifer stated that he was awáre of the fact “that there is a minimal line of distinction between the words ‘desire’ and ‘request’.” All the members of this Court are in agreement that the legal effect of Judge Jenifer’s findings is the same as though Hyde had requested the assistance of counsel before he made his oral confession, although no statement to this effect was deemed necessary .in the opinion of the majority because of the conclusions therein set forth. As was stated in the first opinion on Hyde’s application for post conviction relief, “the record on the original appeal indicates that the police did not advise the applicant of his.right to remain silent * * *” Hyde v. Warden, 235 Md. 641, 650, 202 A. 2d 382 (1964).
In Hyde’s appeal from his conviction, he contended that it was the refusal of the police to obtain the counsel he requested, in conjunction with the failure of the police to advise him of his right to remain silent, which violated his right to due process of law. The Court found to the contrary. Hyde v. State, 228 Md. 209, 217-218, 179 A. 2d 421 (1962), cert. denied 372 U. S. 945 (1963). The Court noted that no specific mention of any confession was made in connection.with this contention. 228 Md. at 217. In the oral argument on the appeal, Hyde’s counsel attempted to add to the contention in the brief by attacking the voluntariness of both the oral and written confession, but the Court held that the question was not properly before it under Maryland Rule 831 c 2 and c 4, 228 Md. at 218.. The Court considered the circumstances of the two confessions but at that time did not have the benefit of the detailed findings of fact made by Judge Jenifer as to what occurred before Hyde made his oral statement. While the Court, on the appeal, emphasized the failure of Hyde’s counsel to object to *675the admission of the oral confession and stated that the subsequent motion to strike all of Hyde’s oral statements was too broad, we have subsequently held that recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on federal constitutional questions have required us to make changes in some of our previous holdings as to the questions which can be raised under post conviction proceedings. Fennell v. Warden, 236 Md. 423, 204 A. 2d 75 (1964) ; Adair v. Warden, 235 Md. 653, 202 A. 2d 764 (1964). “Some matters formerly treated as procedural, or mere rules of evidence, have now been elevated to the status of constitutional rights.” Ledbetter v. Warden, 234 Md. 643, 644, 200 A. 2d 81 (1964).
In remanding Hyde’s application for post conviction relief for findings of fact, the Court was concerned with the applicability and retroactivity of subsequent decisions of the Supreme Court, including Bscobedo. In the opinion on that remand, the Court said that the attack on the oral statements and written confession in the appeal was based on lack of counsel and failure to advise Hyde of his right not to answer questions. 235 Md. at 648. In my opinion, the findings of fact of the court below on the remand, while made in connection with the applicability of recent Supreme Court decisions, cast a new light upon whether Hyde’s confessions were in fact voluntary under the Maryland law. The question so presented is not the denial of counsel as such but the conjunction of the ignoring of Hyde’s request for counsel and the failure of the police to advise him of his right to remain silent on the voluntariness of the confessions.
Hyde was tried on a capital charge. Under all the circumstances, I do not believe that the Court’s decision on his appeal, which was primarily concerned with the effect of the failure of the police to provide counsel and with the admissibility of the written confession, bars him from a consideration of the basic constitutional question of whether his oral statement given shortly before the written confession was made voluntarily or was coerced.
The basic rule as to the admissibility of confessions has been too often enunciated by this Court to require citation of cases. Before a confession can be admitted in evidence, the State must *676■show to the satisfaction of the court that it was the free and voluntary act of the accused; that no force or coercion was exercised by the officers obtaining the confession and no hope or promise was held out to cause the accused to confess. The burden is upon the State to show that the confession was voluntary. The principle rests upon the basic safeguard of individual liberty set forth in the Maryland Declaration of Rights and inherent in the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution that no man, in a criminal case, ought to be compelled to give evidence against himself.
In all the cases which have come before us involving the admissibility of a confession, we have looked to the specific facts and circumstances. We have consistently refused to fragmentize the fundamental principle into subsidiary rules. Absent a controlling decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to the contrary, in our decisions, we have manifested our belief that, properly applied, the general rule of itself protects the rights of the individual without undue restriction of the police investigation necessary for the protection of society.
Accordingly, we have held that a confession is not necessarily to be declared involuntary because of the absence of one or more concomitant circumstances. We have decided that, if the confession is found to have been freely and voluntarily given under the totality of the attendant circumstances, the affirmative advising of an arrestee of his right to counsel before the taking of a confession is not a prerequisite to its admissibility. Cowans and Hayes v. State, 238 Md. 433, 209 A. 2d 552 (1965). Even the denial of counsel, between the time of arrest and the time of confession, we have said, does not of itself affront due process because it does not necessarily indicate an overborne or compelled will. McCleary v. State, 122 Md. 394, 400, 89 Atl. 1100 (1914). See also Mefford and Blackburn v. State, 235 Md. 497, 511, 201 A. 2d 824 (1964), cert. denied 380 U. S. 937 (1965). Of itself, failure to apprise the arrestee of his right to remain silent does not render a confession inadmissible. Bull v. State, 239 Md. 101, 104-5, 210 A. 2d 396 (1965) and cases therein cited.
Nor does the absence of advice as to several of the arrestee’s rights of itself render the confession inadmissible. In Jenkins *677v. State, 238 Md. 451, 459, 209 A. 2d 616 (1965), as pointed out in the majority opinion, the Court said, “If the confession was freely and voluntarily given, as the judges and the jury had a right to find from the testimony was the fact, it would not be inadmissible under the Maryland law merely because the confessor either was not warned of his constitutional right to remain silent or was without the advice of counsel, or both.” In Jenkins, however, the Court stated that the accused did not ask for an attorney then or later. In our decision affirming Hyde’s conviction on appeal, we held that a failure of the police to obtain counsel for Hyde after he had said he did not think he would say more until he had consulted a lawyer, even combined with the failure of the police to tell him he did not have to answer questions, did not, of themselves, make the confession inadmissible. Hyde v. State, supra, at 225.
We have also pointed out, however, that while the absence of one or more of the circumstances to which reference has been made does not of itself make a confession inadmissible, its admissibility “may be affected by the presence or absence of particular factors.” Bagley v. State, 232 Md. 86, 93, 192 A. 2d 53 (1963). The decisions to which reference has been made in this discussion illustrate that the absence of factors protective to the arrestee are often balanced by affirmative circumstances indicating the voluntariness of a confession. In Cowans and Hayes v. State, supra, the written confessions each contained statements that the persons being interrogated had been advised that what they said could be used for or against them in court. There was affirmative evidence as to a similar caution in McCleary v. State, supra. In Mefford and Blackburn v. State, supra, Mefford had been in touch with members of his family before his confession and the police testified that Blackburn had been advised of his rights either to talk, or, without prejudice, to remain silent. The police had made two calls at the appellant’s request in Bull v. State, supra, and the written confession, made some time after the oral admission, showed the appellant was then told he had a perfect right not to answer any questions. In Jenkins v. State, supra, the appellant had been advised that what he said could be used for or against him in the criminal court. In all the cases, it is the totality of the cir*678cumstances to which we have looked, whether the confession has been held properly or improperly admitted.
As a confession has been held voluntary, despite the absence of a single factor or a combination of factors, so no single circumstance has been requisite to a finding that a confession was coerced. For example, in Mercer v. State, 237 Md. 479, 206 A. 2d 797 (1965), a confession was held improperly admitted because the testimony of the appellant that he was physically mistreated by two detectives was not contradicted by either of the persons named. In Streams v. State, 238 Md. 278, 208 A. 2d 614 (1965), no charge of physical force or mistreatment was made, but the appellant testified to threats and promises, and we held the State had not met the burden of showing the confessions were freely and voluntarily made, because it did not call the officers who the appellant claimed were guilty of the improper conduct. In Combs v. State, 237 Md. 428, 206 A. 2d 718 (1965), we held the testimony showed the appellant was physically hurt because he would not talk and was threatened by further confinement until he did talk. In Thiess v. State, 235 Md. 541, 201 A. 2d 790 (1964), there was no evidence of physical mistreatment, but we held the confesssion was improperly admitted because the claims of Thiess that he was not allowed to call his father or his lawyer and that he was told he would not be allowed to do so until he made a statement and was “charged” remained substantially unimpaired.
In the case now before us, there is no evidence whatsoever of the use of physical force. The interrogation of Hyde lasted only two and a half hours. While Hyde testified as to some threats and promises, that testimony was strongly contradicted by the police officers. Admittedly, however, before making his oral statement, Hyde was never advised that he had the right to remain silent, or that anything he said could be used against him in court, or that whatever he said must be free and voluntary, or indeéd, of any of his rights. His expressed desire to consult with counsel before he said anything further, (after he had admitted having been to the home of the deceased and that he did “something wrong”) which was, in effect, a request for' counsel, was ignored or evaded. Hyde testified, without contradiction, that he made his request “over and over and over *679* * * I got tired of hearing myself say it.” His statements that he was nervous and apprehensive and that his requests seemed to irritate the officers were not rebutted.
As has been said, the admitted failures of the police to advise Hyde of any of his rights and to permit him to talk with counsel before he gave the statement, of themselves, do not make his statement involuntary. The question, however, is whether, under all the circumstances, the State has met its burden of showing the statement was given voluntarily, and in determining that question, these factors must necessarily be considered, separately and in conjunction, in the light of the attendant circumstances.
That Hyde was nervous and apprehensive is not unusual. That he was interrogated first by two policemen and then by four, including some of high rank, and, that in the process, he was taken from one room to another, are not matters for criticism. Had he been advised, in one way or another, that he did not have to say anything, there would be no question, under the circumstances, of the voluntariness of what he did say. But whether or not he had the right to consult a lawyer before he made a statement, indubitably, he had the right to remain silent. Repeatedly, he made it clear to the interrogating officers that he wished to remain silent until he had a chance to talk to a lawyer, and, admittedly, he was not given that opportunity. His requests were ignored or evaded. Clearly, his desire not to answer questions or make a statement, at least until after consulting counsel, was expressed or inherent in every request he made. Whether, when he finally made his oral statement, he did so because he had been led to believe he would be detained without the chance to consult counsel until he answered questions, or whether he gave the statement because he was apprehensive of the effect of irritating the officers by his repeated request to remain silent until he was given the opportunity he asked, is immaterial. In either case, under all the circumstances, absent advice that even though he could not then talk with a lawyer, he did not have to answer questions or make a statement, in my judgment, the State has not met the burden of showing that Hyde’s will was not overborne.
Hyde’s written confession followed almost immediately after *680his oral statement. He was given some food and then asked to write his statement. After the oral admission was obtained from him, the written confession followed as a natural and unbroken consequence without the break of a significant passage of time to remove the initial taint. If, as I believe, the oral statement was involuntary and inadmissible, the State must overcome the presumption that the improper influence which produced the first admission is still in effect until a cessation of that influence is definitely shown. The evidence to overcome and rebut such a presumption must be clear, strong and satisfactory and any doubt on the point must be resolved in favor of the accused. Combs v. State, supra, 237 Md. 435-36. Here the presumption has not been overcome.
I would reverse the conviction and remand the case for a new trial.
Judge McWilliams authorizes me to state that he concurs in the views herein expressed.