Court Opinion

ID: 9769496
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:52:45.680078+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:04.709426
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, dissenting. The majority court’s decision to reverse this murder conviction will needlessly affect and shorten law officers’ future investigations of reported crimes by law enforcement officers. The majority opinion, in my view, cannot be justified. The court reverses Antonio L. Britt’s conviction based on the majority court’s assertion that he was not brought before a judicial officer in a timely fashion as required by Ark. R. Crim. P. 8.1, Duncan v. State, 291 Ark. 521, 726 S.W.2d 653 (1987), and Clay v. State, 318 Ark. 122, 883 S.W.2d 822 (1994). The majority badly misreads and misapplies Rule 8.1 and the two cases that discuss the Rule. Rule 8.1 provides that an arrested person who is not released by citation or by other lawful order shall be taken before a judicial officer without unnecessary delay. In Duncan, we said that, where there is a delay in taking a defendant before a judicial officer after his arrest, any confession gained during the delay will be excluded from evidence if (1) the delay was unnecessary, (2) the evidence is prejudicial, and (3) the evidence is reasonably related to the delay. However, in Landrum v. State, 326 Ark. 994, 936 S.W.2d 505 (1996), we made it clear that the purpose in applying the exclusionary rule in cases like Duncan is to deter police misconduct. In Duncan, the defendant was marginally retarded, and was kept incommunicado for three-and-one-half days. Duncan was not given a waiver form to sign, nor was it shown that he intentionally relinquished his rights or had a clear understanding of what his rights were. In addition, the prosecutor in Duncan took on an investigative role and, in doing so, became a witness as well as the prosecutor in Duncan’s case. From the evidence presented, the Duncan court concluded that the evidence showed the delay in arranging Duncan’s appearance in court was purposeful and that the prosecutor had made a deliberate decision to hold Duncan in detention and ignore the prompt-appearance requirement. In short, because of the State’s misconduct and delay, this court suppressed an inculpatory statement Duncan made during the delay. This court’s decision in Clay was reversed for the same reason given in Duncan. This court in Clay said, “The delay in the case now before us was not only unnecessary, it apparently is of the same deliberate sort as we encountered in the Duncan case . . . .” The court in Clay then pointed to the State’s misconduct whereby the deputy prosecutor directed a law-enforcement officer to delay taking Clay before a judicial officer with the expectation that Clay would later admit to capital murder. There is absolutely nothing in the record before us that even hints that there was any misconduct on any law-enforcement officer’s part in this case. But first, the issue of state misconduct aside, the record reveals that Britt obtained a prompt judicial hearing and that no unnecessary delay was evidenced in getting Britt to a hearing. Britt and three accomplices murdered Jonathan Hancock and shot Bradley Davis shortly before 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 9, 1995. He was arrested the same day, and was arraigned the following Tuesday, April 11, 1995. These and other related crimes required the participation and coordination of criminal investigators from two counties, Mississippi and St. Francis. The initial investigation commenced in Mississippi County at 2:37 a.m. on Sunday, when Hancock’s murder was first reported. The investigation then extended into St. Francis County the same day, after authorities learned the truck occupied by Hancock and Davis at the time of the shootings had been seen in Madison. The police’s finding the truck led to Britt’s and one of his accomplice’s arrest around 9:00 a.m. on Sunday. During the afternoon on Sunday, at 3:45 p.m., about seven hours after his arrest, Britt gave authorities an exculpatory statement; however, only an hour and fifteen minutes later, he admitted he had been present with other individuals at the time Hancock was killed. The record reflects that, during this short eight-hour period, Britt had been thoroughly mirandized, had been read his rights, and had voluntarily and intentionally signed and relinquished his rights. Britt was then returned to Mississippi County for detention at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday night. On the morning of Monday, April 10, the Mississippi County Deputy Prosecutor appeared in municipal court where he learned that suspects in the Hancock murder were in custody at the jail for the crimes of murder, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. He went to the jail to determine the status of the investigation and learned officers were taking statements from all suspects, including Britt. Blytheville Police Officer Mike Marshall explained that statements were being taken from suspects known to be involved with Britt; but because the officers were still interviewing suspects and had not completed their work, they did not take Britt to court that Monday. Officer Marshall further testified that he was also investigating Britt’s connection with another related crime, aggravated robbery. Officers took Britt to court the next day, Tuesday, after they completed their interviews with all the suspects and had completed their paperwork. From the foregoing, it is easily concluded that once the investigating authorities learned in the wee hours of April 9, 1995, of Hancock’s murder, they collectively and expeditiously worked to locate Britt and others who were involved in the homicide. By about 9:00 a.m., April 9, Britt was arrested, and within eight more hours, Britt had given a statement implicating himself and others. At the end of the day (10:00 p.m.) on April 9, Britt was returned to the Mississippi County jail for detention. However, the investigators’ work was not yet completed, since Britt’s statement given between 5:00-6:00 p.m. on April 9 named other suspects who still needed to be interviewed. On the morning of April 10, officers renewed their efforts by conducting interviews of these additional suspects, and reinterviewing Britt. While the officers were required to have (and did have) probable cause to arrest Britt, they were free to follow their investigation wherever it led them. This included additional interviews with Britt so long as any delay in getting him to a magistrate was not part of circumstances employed to overbear his will in order to obtain a confession. See United States v. Daniels, 64 F.3d 311 (1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1063 (1996). Here, the authorities had probable cause at the time of Britt’s arrest and his confession on April 9. Once again, the record is quite clear that there was no unnecessary delay between the time the officers first questioned Britt about Hancock’s murder and the time he confessed, thereby implicating himself and others. Most important, no police misconduct occurred during Britt’s incarceration, so there was no policy reason to apply the exclusionary rule to Britt’s April 9 inculpatory statement. See Landrum, 326 Ark. at 999, 936 S.W.2d at 507. To the contrary, the proof shows that once the state deputy prosecutor learned of Britt’s incarceration in the Mississippi County jail, he went to the jail, and was informed about the status of the investigations. Britt was then promptly taken before a magistrate the next day, April 11. In the circumstances evident in this case, Britt was accorded a prompt appearance before a magistrate and was never made the subject of police misconduct that coerced his confession. I respectfully but strongly disagree with this court’s ruling suppressing Britt’s confession. Arnold, C.J., and Corbin, J., join this dissent.