Court Opinion

ID: 9700925
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:53:34.727692+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:13.908690
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Kelleher,
with whom Mr. Justice Joslin joins, dissenting. The majority’s opinion grafts a unique and heretofore judicially unrecognized addition to the four warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966); the fifth warning would read that the police, while in the company of a suspect who has been given his Miranda rights, shall remain silent at all times even among themselves; otherwise what they say to each other may be used to reverse a criminal conviction. I cannot subscribe to the view that the Federal Constitution now requires the police, upon arresting a suspect, to assume the role of contemplative monks at all times while they are in the suspect’s company.
Before considering the constitutional issues, I would briefly detail the events that preceded the defendant’s arrest. Shortly after the beginning of 1975, defendant, in the presence of his former girl friend, sawed off the ends of a shotgun. On the evening of January 12, 1975, he wrapped the shotgun in a blue and white blanket, went to the adjoining apartment, and asked the owner of the building to call a cab for him. When the first cab never arrived, a second was called. The dispatcher of the Silver Top Cab Company sent cab 21, with John Mulvaney driving, to pick up defendant. The owner of the apartment building watched as defendant entered the cab while carrying the blue and white blanket. Mr. Mulvaney radioed the dispatcher that he was going to East Greenwich with his fare and was never heard from again.
Cab 21 was discovered in a wooded area of Coventry a few *660days later. A blue and white blanket was found 200 yards from the cab. Approximately 800 yards from the cab the nude body of John Mulvaney was discovered in a shallow grave. The cause of death was a shotgun blast to the head fired at close range.
A few hours after his cab ride, defendant knocked on the door of a Coventry resident and asked for directions to Weaver Hill Road. The defendant also asked that a cab be called for him. The resident explained that no cabs would be running at that late hour. He noticed that defendant was traveling on foot and was carrying a red flashlight similar to one owned by the deceased.
At about 4 a.m. January 13,1975, defendant arrived at the home of a friend on Weaver Hill Road, Coventry. The defendant said his car had broken down on Route 95 and asked to spend the rest of the night there. In the morning defendant showed his friend the sawed-off shotgun. He also asked his friend to destroy the red flashlight. After a futile search for defendant’s car which supposedly had broken down somewhere on Route 95, the friend gave defendant a ride to Providence.
After the friend had identified State’s Exhibit 41 as the shotgun defendant had with him in the early morning of January 13, defense counsel then requested a voir dire “to determine whether or not this shotgun should be suppressed because of the fact that it was an illegal search, or a search without the consent of Mr. Innis, or even the possibility of an illegal arrest.” Accordingly, the jury was excused, and an extensive voir dire was commenced regarding the circumstances under which the shotgun was discovered or seized.
The first witness called was Providence Patrolman Robert M. Lovell, who testified that in the early morning hours of January 17, 1975, he was searching the Mt. Pleasant area of Providence for the robber of a cab driver. At this point it should be noted why the Providence police were searching for defendant in the Smith Hill-Mt. Pleasant area. Shortly *661before midnight on January 16 the Providence police had been notified by a cab driver that he had just been robbed by a man wielding a sawed-off shotgun.1 The cab driver had told the police that he originally picked up his gun-toting fare, later identified as defendant, in the city of Woonsocket and dropped him off in Providence, somewhere in the area of Rhode Island College. The police immediately began searching the general area for defendant. At approximately 4:30 a.m. Patrolman Lovell spotted defendant on Chalkstone Avenue and placed him under arrest.
In accordance with Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966), Patrolman Lovell immediately informed defendant of his constitutional rights. Within minutes other officers involved in the search for defendant arrived at the scene of the arrest. Sergeant Francis J. Sears was the first to arrive. He also informed defendant of his constitutional rights. Captain John Leyden next arrived, and he also advised defendant of his rights. More specifically, he notified defendant that he had the right to remain silent, that anything he said could be used against him in a court of law, that he had the right to an attorney, and finally that if he could not afford a lawyer, one would be appointed for him by the State of Rhode Island. He asked defendant if he understood the rights, and defendant responded in the affirmative. The defendant then said he wanted to see an attorney. In full compliance with the dictates of Miranda, Captain Leyden then ceased all interrogation and ordered three subordinantes to place defendant in a police car and transport him to police headquarters. Captain Leyden told the three officers that they were not to question defendant in any way.
Although there is some dispute about the seating arrangement, it would appear that Patrolmen Richard McKenna and Joseph Gleckman occupied the car’s front seat, while *662Patrolman Walter Williams and defendant were back-seat passengers. A wire screen which ran from the top of the back cushion of the front seat to the car’s roof separated the front and back portions of the car. As the police car proceeded along Chalkstone Avenue toward Mantón Avenue, Officer Gleckman began talking to Officer McKenna. The back-seat passengers could hear their conversation. Officer Gleckman described the conversation as follows:
“At this point, I was talking back and forth with Patrolman KcKenna stating that I frequent this area while on patrol and there’s a lot of handicapped children running around in this area, and God forbid one of them might find a weapon with shells and they might hurt themselves.
“Q. Who were you talking to?
“A. Patrolman McKenna.
“Q. Did you say anthing to the suspect Innis?
“A. No, I didn’t.”
At this point defendant spoke up from the back seat and said: “Turn around, I’ll show you where the weapon is.” Patrolman McMenna then radioed Captain Leyden and informed him they were returning to the scene of the arrest to locate the weapon. Having traveled less than a mile, they returned to the arrest scene in a matter of minutes.
When defendant alighted from the police car, Captain Leyden once again advised defendant of his rights. He asked defendant if he understood these rights, and defendant said he did, but he wanted to get the gun out of the way because of the “kids in the area” of the school. The police moved from Chalkstone Avenue to the Pleasant View School. There, with the aid of the headlights of various police vehicles, defendant went out into a nearby field and located the shotgun and some shells under a pile of rocks.
Today a majority of this court has seen fit to vacate the conviction under review on the ground that the admission of *663the shotgun violated defendant’s constitutional right against self-incrimination. I cannot agree.
The majority rests its conclusion on the recent Supreme Court decision in Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 97 S. Ct. 1232, 51 L. Ed. 2d 424 (1977).2 Brewer consists of a majority opinion and three concurring opinions, all of which are carefully worded and narrowly drawn. I believe that if the Supreme Court had before it the facts that were elicited at the trial in the Superior Court, Brewer would be considered inapposite.
In Brewer the accused, Williams, surrendered to the police in Davenport, Iowa, upon the advice of a Des Moines attorney. A warrant had been issued for Williams’ arrest in connection with the Des Moines abduction of a 10-year-old girl. Williams’ attorney was present at the Des Moines police station when the Davenport police called with the information that Williams had surrendered. In the presence of certain Des Moines police, the attorney talked to Williams on the phone and informed him that Des Moines police would be driving to Davenport to pick him up, that they would not interrogate him, and that Williams should not talk to the police regarding the abduction.
Williams was arraigned in Davenport on the Des Moines warrant and advised of his Miranda rights. He was represented then by a second attorney, who advised him not to make any statements to the police until he consulted with his Des Moines counsel. When the Des Moines police contingent arrived in Davenport to transport Williams, they refused to allow the Davenport attorney to accompany his client on the return trip. One of the police contingent was a detective who *664held the rank of captain. He was present when the Des Moines attorney had advised Williams to remain silent and assured his client that he would not be interrogated on the trip to Des Moines. When the detective expressed some reservations about the no-interrogation arrangements, Williams’ Davenport attorney made it clear to the detective that Williams was not to be questioned on the way back to Des Moines.
Soon after the Des Moines police set out on the 160-mile return trip to headquarters, the detective engaged his prisoner in a “wide ranging conversation.” 430 U.S. at 392, 97 S. Ct. at 1236, 51 L. Ed. 2d at 432. Unlike the situation in the case presented to us, the detective specifically addressed remarks to the prisoner. Knowing that the prisoner was a former mental patient and a man of strong religious conviction, the detective delivered what is generally referred to as the “Christian burial speech.” Id. Addressing the prisoner as “Reverend,” the detective said:
“ ‘I want to give you something to think about while we’re traveling down the road. ... Number one, I want you to observe the weather conditions, it’s raining, it’s sleeting, it’s freezing, driving is very treacherous, visibility is poor, it’s going to be dark early this evening. They are predicting several inches of snow for tonight, and I feel that you yourself are the only person that knows where this little girl’s body is, that you yourself have only been there once, and if you get a snow on top of it you yourself may be unable to find it. And, since we will be going right past the area on the way into Des Moines, I feel that we could stop and locate the body, that the parents of this little girl should be entitled to a Christian burial for the little girl who was snatched away from them on Christmas [E]ve and murdered. And I feel we should stop and locate it on the way in rather than waiting until morning and trying to come back out after a snow storm and possibly not being able *665to find it at all.’ ” 430 U.S. at 392-93, 97 S. Ct. at 1236, 51 L. Ed. 2d at 432-33.
Not far from Des Moines the prisoner directed the police to the body of the young girl.
The evidence in question was admitted at Williams’ subsequent murder trial, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Mr. Justice Stewart, in speaking for the majority, relied heavily on Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S. Ct. 1199, 12 L. Ed. 2d 246 (1964), and ruled that Williams had been denied the right to the assistance of counsel. A careful reading of the majority opinion reveals that the key factor underlying this conclusion was the detective’s admission that his “Christian burial speech” was made “with the specific intent to elicit incriminating statements.” 430 U.S. at 403, 97 S. Ct. at 1241, 51 L. Ed. 2d at 439. Justice Stewart continually stressed that the detective deliberately and designedly set out to elicit information from the prisoner. 430 U.S. at 399, 403, 405, 97 S. Ct. at 1239, 1240, 1241, 1243, 51 L. Ed. 2d at 436, 437, 439, 440. Justices Powell and Marshall, in separate concurring opinions, also stressed the intentional nature of the police conduct. 430 U.S. at 408, 412, 97 S. Ct. at 1244, 1246, 51 L. Ed. 2d at 442, 445.
In contrast, there is nothing in the record before us which suggests in any way that Patrolman Gleckman deliberately set out to elicit incriminating statements from defendant. All the evidence in the record is directly to the contrary.3 All of the officers testified that Captain Leyden had specifically ordered them not to question defendant. All agree that after defendant requested an attorney, no one spoke to him, questioned him, or directed their remarks to him in any way. Statements volunteered by a suspect have never been thought *666to create constitutional problems. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. at 478, 86 S. Ct. at 1630, 16 L. Ed. 2d at 726; State v. Travis, 116 R.I. 678, 360 A.2d 548 (1976). Only the “interrogation” of a suspect after he has asserted his rights or requested an attorney is constitutionally impermissible. Id. While the dividing line between the two may not always be clear, when the record adduced in the Superior Court is measured against the criterion set forth in Brewer concerning whether the police have deliberately and designedly set out to elicit information from the suspect, it is clear that defendant was not being interrogated when he overheard Gleckman’s conversation.
At the time of defendant’s arrest in January 1975, Patrolman Gleckman had been a member of the Providence Police Department for just over a year. He could not have heard about the Iowa captain’s impassioned exhortation because Brewer was not published until some 2 years later, in March 1977. Once defendant expressed his choice of consulting with an attorney, Officer Gleckman’s sole duty was to assist in the transportation of the prisoner from Mt. Pleasant’s Chalkstone Avenue to police headquarters in downtown Providence. In the vernacular, Officer Gleckman was a “street cop.” His beat often included the Pleasant View School area. There is no question that Pleasant View is a city school which serves the needs of the retarded or emotionally disturbed child. There is no compairson between the Iowa detective’s intentional playing upon the emotions of a prisoner and Patrolman Gleckman’s off-hand reference to Patrolman McKenna about Pleasant View’s student body.
Even if I were to concede that defendant was “interrogated,” I would not exclude the shotgun from evidence for, in my opinion, defendant voluntarily and intelligently waived his privilege against self-incrimination when he decided to lead the police to the shotgun. At this waiver stage the instant case loses any and all resemblance to the facts of Brewer v. Williams. In Brewer there was no “break in the action” after the subtle interrogation had commenced before *667Williams led the police to the body. As Justice Powell noted, there was no evidence that the defendant voluntarily waived his rights, except the fact that statements eventually were obtained. 430 U.S. at 411, 97 S. Ct. at 1246, 51 L. Ed. 2d at 444, Powell, J., concurring.
The officer in charge of the early morning search for the individual who had held up the cab driver was Captain Ley-den. He, along with a dozen other officers, had been searching for defendant since midnight because the cab driver, upon being brought to police headquarters, saw defendant’s picture on a “Wanted” poster and immediately identified him as his assailant.
When defendant was arrested unarmed at 4:30 a.m., the logical inference was that he had secreted the shotgun nearby. The defendant was arrested about a block away from the Pleasant View School, and within a matter of a few hours the children would be making their way towards this institution. When defendant requested an attorney, all questioning ceased. And now defendant had returned to the scene and indicated a willingness to pinpoint the location of the dangerous weapon. Under the circumstances, what should Captain Leyden have done? I submit he did the only thing he reasonably could have done. The defendant was taken out of the police car and for the fourth time that evening was given the full panoply of constitutional protection due him. The captain then asked defendant if he understood these rights and received an affirmative answer. When defendant insisted on locating the shotgun, Captain Leyden directed that the search for the weapon begin. I would hold that the state has met its heavy burden of establishing that defendant voluntarily, knowingly, and intentionally relinquished his known rights. See Johnson v. Zerbst, 340 U.S. 458, 58 S. Ct. 1019, 82 L. Ed. 1461 (1938); State v. Vargus, 118 R.I. 113, 373 A.2d 150 (1977).
The views expressed by the majority come perilously close to fulfilling the worst fears of the four Brewer dissenters, who *668expressed concern that the majority in Brewer was really holding that once a suspect has asserted his right not to talk without the presence of an attorney, “it becomes legally impossible for him to waive that right until he has seen an attorney.” 430 U.S. at 418-19, 97 S. Ct. at 1249, 51 L. Ed. 2d at 449, Burger, C.J., dissenting. In fact, Justice Stewart took pains to deny this charge specifically and suggested that a valid waiver could have been found had the Des Moines detective prefaced his remarks by telling Williams that he had a right to the presence of a lawyer or otherwise made an effort to ascertain whether Williams wished to relinquish that right. 430 U.S. at 405-06, 97 S. Ct. at 1243, 51 L. Ed. 2d at 440-441. That, I suggest, is precisely what Captain Leyden did here. Justice Powell’s concurring opinion is more emphatic on this point. He found “no justification” for the view of the Chief Justice:
“On the contrary, the opinion of the Court is explicitly clear that the right to assistance of counsel may be waived, after it has attached, without notice to or consultation with counsel.” 430 U.S. at 413, 97 S. Ct. at 1246, 51 L. Ed. 2d at 445.
Despite these explicit assurances found in Brewer, the majority finds no waiver following Captain Leyden’s second rendition of the Miranda warnings. The rationale for this failure is based upon a somewhat novel interpretation of the “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine. In discussing the “fruit of the poisonous tree” concept, the United States Supreme Court has specifically limited the extent to which prior illegal police conduct must be considered responsible for the securing of incriminatory information.
“We need not hold that all evidence is ‘fruit of the poisonous tree’ simply because it would not have come to light but for the illegal actions of the police. Rather, the more apt question in such a case is ‘whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality, the evidence to which instant objection is made has been come at by *669exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.’ ” Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 487-88, 83 S. Ct. 407, 417, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441, 455 (1963); Commonwealth v. Cunningham, 471 Pa. 577, 586, 379 A.2d 1172, 1176-77 (1977).
Julius C. Michaelson, Attorney General, Nancy Marks Rahmes, Special Assistant Attorney General, for plaintiff.
William F. Reilly, Public Defender, Barbara Hurst, Chief Appellate Attorney, John A. MacFadyen III, Assistant Public Defender, for defendant.
Even assuming Officer Gleckman’s concern about the Pleasant View student population was in fact an artfully executed interrorgation, I believe the police did not “exploit” the primary illegality, but instead “purged” the primary taint by taking the defendant out of the police car, placing him on the street, reading him for the fourth time his Miranda rights, and making sure he understood the consequences of his action. In response the defendant told Captain Leyden that he did understand what he was doing and then went out into the nearby field and located his weapon for the police. If this factual pattern does not constitute a valid waiver of one’s fifth amendment rights, the worst fears of the Brewer dissenters have now been realized.

The cab driver’s testimony was excluded from the jury as prejudicial “other crimes” evidence.

Brewer was decided on sixth amendment grounds (right to counsel). The majority has chosen to rely upon the fifth amendment in reaching today’s result, despite the explicit refusal by the Supreme Court to decide Brewer under the fifth amendment. Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 397, 97 S. Ct. 1232, 1239, 51 L. Ed. 2d 424, 435-36 (1977).

The defendant did not testify or introduce any evidence during the voir dire regarding the shotgun. Therefore, the only evidence in the record is the uncontradicted testimony of all the police officers who were present when the defendant was arrested and transported to the police station.