Court Opinion

ID: 9722913
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:55:18.643025+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:00:39.379125
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE DOWNING, dissenting: In my opinion the facts in this case are not sufficiently comparable to the facts in Beckwith v. United States, 44 L.W. 4499 (74-1243, decided April 21,1976). As explained below I do not believe we are compelled to apply Beckwith. Therefore, I respectfully dissent. In Beckwith there can be no doubt that a special agent of the Internal Revenue Service warned the taxpayer of the nature of the investigation and of his rights, although not in the exact language of the Miranda warnings. On the other hand, in the instant case there was, absolutely no warning or caution resembling the Miranda warnings given by either auditor Whitlock or investigator Lynn that their visit could lead to a prosecution for filing fraudulent Retailers’ Occupation Tax returns. Although both cases have no custodial problem as involved in Miranda, I agree with Justice Brennan in his dissenting opinion in Beckwith that custody is not the only factor that gives rise for the need of Miranda warnings.1  Chief Justice Burger, writing for the majority, pointed out that “[a]n interview with government agents in a situation such as the one shown by this record simply does not present the elements which the Miranda Court found so inherently coercive as to require its holding.” (44 L.W. 4499, 4501.) (Emphasis supplied.) An objective reading of “the record” — as set forth in the opinion — in Beckwith could obviously lead to the conclusion that with the warnings that had been given by the special agent at the start of the interview, there was no coercion. In fact the Beckwith majority opinion then states: “[p]roof that some kind of warnings were given or that none were given would be relevant evidence only on the issue of whether the questioning was in fact coercive.” The instant case has a record which differs from Beckwith as day differs from night. So far as we can determine, the precise question raised in the instant case has not been decided by the Illinois Supreme Court. Thus we are faced with the question of whether this court is obligated to follow the United States Supreme Court in Beckwith. That case involved the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. In Myers we are concerned with article I, section 10, of the 1970 Illinois Constitution which reads: “No person shall be compelled in a criminal case to give evidence against himself nor be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense.” In Ray Schools-Chicago-Inc. v. Cummins (1957), 12 Ill. 2d 376, 381, 146 N.E.2d 42, when discussing this issue, our supreme court said: “Still other cases hold that where Federal questions are not involved, as where State constitutions and statutes are to be construed, State courts are not required to follow Federal court decisions although they may be persuasive. [Citations.] Thus it is held that State courts are free to decide for themselves all questions of the construction of State constitutions and statutes and are not bound by the construction arrived at by a Federal court, even though that court is the Supreme Court of the United States. [Citations.]” (See also 21 C.J.S. Courts §205 (1940); Bunnell v. Superior Court of Santa Clara County (1975), 13 Cal. 3d 592, 119 Ca. Rptr. 302, 531 P.2d 1086; Paul v. Allied Dairymen, Inc. (1962), 209 Cal. App. 2d 112, 25 Cal. Rptr. 595.) As the United States Supreme Court said in Highland Farms Dairy, Inc. v. Agnew (1937), 300 U.S. 608, 613, 81 L. Ed. 835, 840, 57 S. Ct. 549, “° ° ° a judgment by the highest court of a State as to the meaning and effect of its own constitution is decisive and controlling everywhere.” In fact the United States Supreme Court has held it will decline to review State court judgments which rest on independent and adequate State grounds, even where the judgments also decide Federal questions. (Henry v. Mississippi (1965), 379 U.S. 443, 446, 13 L. Ed. 2d 408, 85 S. Ct. 564. In my opinion, our State courts have the right — and duty — to interpret our State constitution when considering whether certain actions are violative thereof. Illinois may offer more protection to its citizens than does the United States Supreme Court, but not less. We are not constrained from arriving at our own resolution of this significant problem. When balancing the tension which may exist between protecting the rights of individuals and the right of the State under such circumstances as in this record, the constitutional rights of the individual should be protected. And the presence or absence of “coercion” in the strict technical sense should not be the decisive test. The threat of a tax investigation can be as mentally coercive as that resulting from police station custody. Investigation of tax matters can involve at least three possibilities: a civil assessment for back taxes due, a civil assessment for back taxes plus a civil penalty for fraud, or criminal prosecution. Thus, a taxpayer when initially confronted by Illinois Department of Revenue agents has no way of actually knowing which direction the investigation may take, nor is he told. On the other hand, investigations for murder, armed robbery, rape, etc. focus immediately on a crime which has been committed and the suspect knows the crime being investigated. In my opinion the Beckwith opinion overlooks the practical problems inherent in any tax investigation. Therefore, I feel we in Illinois should chart our own course and provide some protection for our citizens in this intricate area. Cf. Petersen, Mathis v. United States, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Rights of Taxpayers, 57 Ill. B. J. 468 (1968-69). The majority opinion in this case will be creating precedent which will give free rein to State of Illinois revenue agents in commencing criminal tax investigations. In my opinion we are authorizing the State to compel and induce self-incriminating disclosures. I cannot see how the State of Illinois can be harmed by requiring proper warnings to be given to taxpayers prior to an examination.2 I would affirm the judgment of the circuit court of Cook County.   Myers, in his brief in this court, raised the question that the auditor and investigator of the State Revenue Department deprived him of the protections afforded by Illinois Revised Statutes, 1973, ch. 120, par. 448, which reads as follows: “No person shall be excused from testifying or from producing any books, papers, records or memoranda in any investigation or upon any hearing, when ordered to do so by the department or any officer or employee thereof, upon the ground that the testimony or evidence, documentary or otherwise, may tend to incriminate him or subject him to a criminal penalty, but no person shall be prosecuted or subjected to any criminal penalty for, or on account of, any transaction made or thing concerning which he may testify or produce evidence, documentary or otherwise, before the department or an officer or employee thereof; provided, that such immunity shall extend only to a natural person who, in obedience to a subpoena, gives testimony under oath or produces evidence, documentary or otherwise, under oath. No person so testifying shall be exempt from prosecution and punishment for perjury committed in so testifying.” As the trial court suppressed the oral statements due to the lack of Miranda-type warnings and did not consider the application of the above cited statute, our opinion correctly makes no reference to that issue. However, it is pertinent to the subject of this dissent.