Court Opinion

ID: 9688311
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:43:16.07135+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:37.334116
License: Public Domain

CATES, Judge
(dissenting).
Originally this appeal was assigned to the Hon. L. S. Moore, supernumerary Circuit Judge sitting as a coadjutor by designation of the Chief Justice.
I concurred in Judge Moore’s remanding opinion which, however, is not reported by reason of the instant majority decision. Presiding Judge Price did not concur. Judge Almon at nisi prius had held the preliminary hearing and hence recused himself.
I
My basic reason for disagreement is that to me the custodial presentation of Dawson to Stokes in the Lawrence County jail had such an aura of suggestibility that the absence of counsel prima facie tainted the in-court identification. See Jones v. State, 283 Ala. 221, 215 So.2d 437.
Unlike the almost death bed presentation found to be imperative in Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199, here there was no reason shown for rushing Dawson through a summary detention and a show up without a lawyer. See Part II of Stovall v. Denno, supra; also Rivers v. United States, 5 Cir., 400 F.2d 935.
Nor, if I be right, can the harmless error rule excuse this breach of Dawson’s constitutional right to counsel. Here the standard would be the stricter Federal one: that beyond a reasonable doubt the error was harmless. Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705; Harrington v. California, 395 U.S. 250, 89 S.Ct. 1726, 23 L.Ed.2d 284.
II
Moreover, it would seem that the majority of this specially constituted court would put in effect the Double Objection Rule. That is, after a defendant’s pretrial motion to suppress is overruled, then on the main trial it would still be necessary to object to the offer of the evidence already ruled *299upon. This, of course, is an adoption of the dictum of the late Judge Johnson in Carpenter v. State, 42 Ala.App. 618, 174 So.2d 336(12). Anno. 50 A.L.R.2d 531 at 591, § 12(b).
I give this caveat as a reminder that a lawyer must return to the old rule to protect a record: “Object, always object, till Hell freezes over.”
In this case I vote, not for a reversal, but for a remandment in accordance with Part V of the opinion in United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149.