Court Opinion

ID: 9689700
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:43:24.588385+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:51.490359
License: Public Domain

CATES, Judge
(concurring specially).
After Gilbert v. State of California, 388 U.S. 263, 87 S.Ct. 1951, 18 L.Ed.2d 1178, this affirmance cannot apply as a precedent for trials after June 12, 1967. See Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199. Hence, I think this case falls under Code 1940, T. 13, § 66, so as to do away with the need for an opinion to explain the decision.
If there is any arguable point here, it would require the Supreme Court of Alabama to overrule Aaron v. State, 271 Ala. 70, 122 So.2d 360. Therein Lawson, J., wrote in part:
“The writer and Justices STAKELY and COLEMAN are of the opinion that the testimony as to the identity of the defendant based on the enforced repetition by the defendant of words alleged to have been used at the scene of the crime was inadmissible and highly prejudicial. They entertain the view that such evidence violated the right guaranteed to the defendant by § 6 of the Constitution of this state not to be ‘compelled to give evidence against himself,’ for the conclusion of the prosecutrix of defendant’s identity was based almost exclusively on this enforced conduct of the defendant. Beachem v. State, 144 Tex.Cr.R. 272, 162 S.W.2d 706; State v. Taylor, 213 S.C. 330, 49 S.E.2d 289, 16 A.L.R.2d 1317. The Texas constitutional provision against self-incrimination is identical with that of this state. See 27 North Carolina Law Review 262; 24 Indiana Law Journal 587; 1 Vanderbilt Law Review 250.
“The defendant was not merely required to speak; he was compelled to repeat certain specific words or phrases which the prosecutrix had told the officials her assailant used during the course of the *436attack. The South Carolina and Texas cases specifically condemn this practice. * * *»
However, in view of the emphasis exhibited by Merrill, J., in Seals v. State, 271 Ala. 142, 122 So.2d 513, I see no adoption of the South Carolina rule. Even though the use of the same words 1 may be highly suggestible, Alabama seems uncommitted as to labeling the device as self-incriminatory.
Thus in Aaron, supra, we find at page 84 of 271 Ala., at page 372 of 122 So.2d:
“However, LIVINGSTON, C. J., and SIMPSON, GOODWYN and MERRILL, JJ., are clear to the conclusion that the record in this case, when construed in the light most favorable to the defendant, does not show that he was ‘compelled’ to give evidence against himself. Consequently, they do not express any view concerning the right of the State to compel a prisoner to repeat in the presence of the prosecutrix certain specific words or phrases which the prosecutrix contends were uttered by her assailant.”
Correctly, all the members of our Supreme Court kept the primary emphasis on compulsion vel non. The words which are used in a line up are prejudicial only if the jury infers that the defendant is confessing.
In this connection, the contrast of voice identification with the reliability and objectivity of dactylography is denigrated by an excerpt from Weintraub, Privilege against Self-Incrimination, 10 Vand.L.Rev. 485, at 505 :
“Only compelled conduct which places reliance on the veracity of the accused and which may aid in convicting him of a crime for which he can be punished should be within the scope of the privilege. It would seem that a compelled voice test does meet this requirement. As is the case in the execution of handwriting exemplars, a direction to an accused to speak for identification purposes implies a command that he speak in his normal voice. When the accused speaks, he is making the statement, ‘This is my voice.’ Since, in practice, voice identifications are usually made by inexpert laymen, the suspect who disguises his voice has an even greater chance of defeating identification' than the suspect who attempts to disguise his handwriting.”
Aaron was retried and came up again under the Automatic Appeal Act. Aaron v. State, 273 Ala. 337, 139 So.2d 309. More detail as to the voice identification was adduced.
However, several reasons are listed to support the conclusion that Aaron was not compelled to testify against himself. One reason was that the victim identified Aaron before the deputy (“no threat, coercion, hope or promise of reward” being made to Aaron) asked Aaron to repeat the rapist’s words, “turn me loose.”
Thus the question appears still unresolved in Alabama.
In this case I fail to find in the appellant’s brief any statement of testimony that at the line up at which Reynolds made the identification the police threatened or coerced any of the men into speaking. But see United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, at 231, fn. 11, 87 S.Ct. 1926, as a claim of prejudicial suggestiveness in Aaron v. State, 273 Ala. 337, 139 So.2d 309, supra.
United States v. Wade, supra, came from a divided court. A portion from Part I of the opinion of Brennan, J., was quoted herein by my Brother Johnson. The vote on Part I was 5-4.
*437In Biggers v. State, Tenn., 411 S.W.2d 696, we find:
“In the instant case defendant was told what words to say and in repeating them he did not give any factual information tending to connect him with the crime; nor could any reliance he placed on these words which would indicate defendant was conscious of, or had knowledge of, any facts of the crime. The only thing he gave was the sound of his voice to be used, along with other things, solely for the purpose of identification. Under these circumstances we do not think defendant’s constitutional right against self-incrimination was violated. * * * ”
Thus I believe that a properly drawn instruction for the trial court to give the jury could direct the jury that the words employed are not confessory.
In this area of essentially police administration, safeguards against suggestibility are usually employed. I would adopt as the most comprehensive vademécum the following quotation (omitting citations and footnotes) from Traynor, C. J., in People v. Ellis, 65 Cal.2d 529, 55 Cal.Rptr. 385, 421 P.2d 393:
“Defendant was arrested on September 9, 1964, and taken to the San Mateo Police Department, where the victim identified him in a lineup as her assailant. The victim also indicated that she could identify her assailant’s voice. She was placed in a room next to the interrogation room, and defendant was asked to repeat phrases recited by the police. Defendant refused to cooperate and remained silent.
“Police officers testified that they advised defendant of his right to counsel and of his right to remain silent and testified to his responses to their questions. They also testified that he refused to participate in the voice identification test. Defendant contends that introduction of the evidence of his refusal to participate in a voice identification test and the- prosecutor’s comments thereon violated his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination.
“The privilege against self-incrimination applies to evidence of ‘communications or testimony’ of the accused, but not to ‘real or physical’ evidence derived from him. * * * The results of voice identification tests fall within the category of real or physical evidence. * * * In such a test, the speaker is asked, not to communicate ideas or knowledge of facts, but to engage in the physiological processes necessary to produce a series of articulated sounds, the verbal meanings of which are unimportant. The sounds alone are elicited for identification purposes through characteristics such as pitch, tone, intonation, accent, and word stress. The speech patterns of individuals are distinctive physical characteristics that serve to identify them just as do other physical characteristics such as color of eyes, hair, and skin, physical build and fingerprints.
“Voice identification testimony is the product of an observable physical characteristic made by an independent witness. It is the very type of objective factual evidence, independent of information communicated by the accused, that the privilege encourages police to seek. Moreover, independent identification testimony, unlike testimonial evidence derived from the accused, raises no question of reliance on the veracity of the accused. Any attempt by a suspect to disguise his voice is apt to be detected readily by those persons present who can compare the sample with his normal voice. Futhermore, there is no risk that one could be coerced into falsely accusing himself. It is difficult to imagine how a suspect could be induced to impersonate an unknown voice to incriminate himself.
“It has been urged that the privilege reflects an ultimate sense of fairness that prohibits the state from demanding assistance of any kind from an individual in penal proceedings taken against him. The privilege includes no such prohibition. *438Criminal proceedings are replete with instances where at least passive cooperation of an accused may be constitutionally required.
“A suspect asked to speak for voice identification is not subjected to the same psychological pressures are reduced to the by a demand for testimony. It is no more unfair to ask a suspect to speak for voice identification than to ask him to appear in a lineup for visual identification. The psychological pressures are reduced to the same degree, through a limitation of alternatives. Deceit is improbable; the simple choice for a guilty person is between conduct likely to expose incriminating evidence and inferences as to guilt likely to flow from a successful refusal to participate.
“A related view of the individual interest protected by the privilege focuses on the right of privacy. * * * The Fifth Amendment right of privacy protects at least uncommunicated thoughts and has been extended to preclude compelled production of private papers and documents. * * * A voice test, however, contemplates no such intrusion into privacy; no disclosure of thought or privately held information is requested. One’s voice is hardly of a private nature. It is constantly exposed to public observation and is merely another identifying physical characteristic.
“It thus appears that an extension of the privilege to voice identification would serve none of the purposes of the privilege. It would only exclude evidence of considerable importance when visual identification is doubtful or impossible. The masked robber, the telephone extortionist, and the attacker in the night may all seek refuge behind an extension of the privilege that would do little to further the welfare of accused persons in general. Denial of access to a pertinent identifying trait can only weaken a system dedicated to the ascertainment of truth.
“We do not leave the individual unprotected. The need for protection is greater in confession cases where the risk of police overzealousness is comparatively great because self-incriminating statements are the most persuasive evidence of guilt. Testimony by a witness resulting from a purported identification is less conclusive and there is therefore less incentive for police to use unwarranted pressure in obtaining the evidence. Nevertheless, it bears emphasis that, as in the case of all police procedures for the securing of nonprivileged evidence, fundamental principles of fairness and due process are always applicable to prevent abuse. * * *
“Even though evidence obtained from a voice identification is not within the privilege against self-incrimination, the question remains whether evidence and comment on a refusal to take such a test is admissible. It is clear that ‘it is impermissible to penalize an individual for exercising his Fifth Amendment privilege when he is under police custodial interrogation.’ * * * This doctrine is a logical extension * * * of the rule of Griffin v. State of California (1965) 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106, * * * prohibiting comment on the failure of an accused to testify at trial. Comment on refusal to testify was held to be ‘a penalty imposed by courts for exercising a constitutional privilege. It cuts down on the privilege by making its assertion costly.’ * * * Such a rule is not applicable when, as in this case, the defendant has no constitutional right to refuse to speak solely for purposes of voice identification.
“Nor was defendant’s refusal to ‘display his voice’ itself a testimonial communication. It was circumstantial evidence of consciousness of guilt, and like similar evidence, such as escape from custody (People v. Otis (1959) 174 Cal.App.2d 119, 344 P.2d 342), false alibi (People v. Allison (1966,) 245 A.C.A. 590, 245 Cal.App.2d 568, 54 Cal. Rptr. 148), flight (People v. Hoyt (1942) 20 Cal.2d 306, 125 P.2d 29), suppression of evidence (People v. Burton (1961) 55 Cal. 2d 328, 11 Cal.Rptr. 65, 359 P.2d 433), and *439failure to respond to accusatory statements when not in police custody * * * its admission does not violate the privilege. Moreover, as in the foregoing examples, the evidence did not result from a situation contrived to produce conduct indicative of guilt. Unlike the superstitious tests described by Wigmore [3d. Ed. § 275] and their modern successor, the lie detector, that have as their sole purpose the establishment of an environment in which the accused’s consciousness of guilt can be detected, the purpose of asking defendant to speak was to obtain probative physical evidence and the conduct was merely incident to that effort. A guilty party may prefer not to find himself in a situation where consciousness of guilt may be inferred from his conduct, but it can scarcely be contended that the police, who seek evidence from the test itself, will tend to coerce parties into refusing to take tests in order to produce this evidence.
“Although conduct indicating consciousness of guilt is often described as an ‘admission by conduct,’ such nomenclature should not obscure the fact that guilty conduct is not a testimonial statement of guilt. It is therefore not protected by the Fifth Amendment. By acting like a guilty person, a man does not testify to his guilt but merely exposes himself to the drawing of inferences from circumstantial evidence of his state of mind.
“We are aware that the United States Supreme Court in Schmarber v. State of California (1966) 384 U.S. 757, 765, fn. 9, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908, has cautioned that in some cases the administration of tests might result in ‘testimonial products’ proscribed by the privilege. We do not believe, however, that the inferences flowing from guilty conduct are such testimonial products. Rather, the court’s concern seemed directed to insuring full protection of the testimonial privilege from even unintended coercive pressures. In the case of a blood test for example, the court considered the possibility that fear induced by the prospect of having the test administered might itself provide a coercive device to elicit incriminating statements.- Such a compelled testimonial product would of course be inadmissible.
“Evidence of the refusal is not only probative; its admission operates tó induce suspects to cooperate with law enforcement officials. Only the overriding interest in protecting the privilege against compulsory self-incrimination, itselí the result of a delicate balance, prohibits evidence or comment in the refusal to testify cases. But the privilege itself is not at issue here. Without exception, none of the reasons that support the privilege lends support to a rule that would exclude probative evidence obtained from an accused’s effort to conceal nonprivileged evidence.
“In the present case, however, the police officers warned defendant that he had the right to remain silent and that anything he said could be used against him. This warning did not distinguish between speech in terms of communications and speech for voice identification, between a refusal to speak free from sanctions and a refusal to speak productive of detrimental inferences. That distinction would hardly occur to a layman unless it was called to his attention. Thus, defendant’s refusal to speak might well have been the direct result of the police warning and cannot be used against him. * * *
“The usual Fifth Amendment warning that a suspect has a right to remain silent creates this problem, for if taken literally it includes the right not to speak at all. After having given such a warning, if the police direct a defendant to speak for voice identification and he refuses, they must, as a prerequisite to the use of the defendant’s refusal to speak as evidence of consciousness of guilt, advise him that the right to remain silent does not include the right to refuse to participate in such a test.”
See also Spectrogram Voice Identification, 19 Am.Jur., Proof of Facts, 423.
*440I consider that nothing in Gilbert v. State of California, supra, detracts from the foregoing quoted views.
From the foregoing, I conclude that in trials after June 12, 1967, even with counsel attending a prisoner at a pre-trial line up, after the defendant has been properly-warned and advised both a la Miranda and per Ellis, his refusal to spealc for voice identification is admissible as to guilty conduct on his part.

. In Orr v. State, 225 Ala. 642, 144 So. 867, the words Orr used in jail are not set out in the opinion nor was compulsion shown. State v. Freeman, 195 Kan. 561, 408 P.2d 612.