Court Opinion

ID: 9674432
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:28:31.642779+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:27.568592
License: Public Domain

SUMMERS, Justice
(dissenting).
I do not agree that the unsupported, uncorroborated statement of the accused that he had not had food from the time of his arrest to the time when the State established that he made an oral confession (approximately 54 hours) should have the effect of rendering the confession inadmissible, especially when the State has affirmatively established the free and voluntary nature of the confession.
The majority opinion rests upon the rule announced in State v. Honeycutt, 216 La. 610, 44 So.2d 313 (1950), which is interpreted to require that the State rebut all evidence, whether creditable or not, tending to show that the confession was extracted by force, abuse, intimidation or other undue influence. But this rule is, I submit, subject to a reasonable interpretation and a reasonable application to the particular facts of each case. Thus if the State has affirmatively established the free and voluntary character of the confession in laying the predicate for its introduction, it should not be necessary, and the law does not require, that the State again introduce evidence to rebut all of the unsupported testimony of the accused to the contrary, when the trier of fact is satisfied with the first proof. What the majority, in effect, requires by its decision is a rebuttal to a rebuttal whether or not the evidence being rebutted is creditable. I disagree with this requirement. In my opinion uncorroborated testimony which the trial judge.does not believe is really no testimony and requires no rebuttal, unless there are other facts which would warrant a reasonable belief that the testimony is creditable.
At the trial, when evidence was taken outside the presence of the jury in the State’s effort to establish the predicate for the admission of the confession, the deputy-sheriffs, who had questioned the accused and in whose presence the confession was made, testified that the accused told them at that time that he had been “well treated” since his arrest; they testified that the accused did not appear to be “tired, worn or haggard,” but, “to the contrary, * * * thought he looked very good and he didn’t seem to be under any stress or strain,” that the accused made no complaints to them but stated that he was *341“fine”. One of the officers testified further that the accused declared in the presence of three other officers that at the time of the confession he had not been mistreated in any way. Another witness to the confession noted that the physical condition of the accused was “very good” and that he did not appear to be “tired, drawn or haggard.”
The testimony of others who interrogated the accused on other occasions is to the same effect.
In my opinion this evidence adequately contradicts the unsupported statement of the accused to the contrary for it shows that the accused himself declared he had not been mistreated. Under these circumstances the trial judge was fully justified in accepting the State’s version of the facts and discounting the later statement of the accused that he had not eaten for 54 hours. Under these circumstances it would be cumulative and would serve no purpose for the State’s witnesses to repeat what they had already testified to.
It should be kept in mind, too, that defense counsel had ample opportunity to cross-examine the State’s witnesses concerning the claim of the accused that he had not eaten since his arrest. They did not, on any occasion, examine the State’s witnesses on this point.
Moreover, the record unequivocally shows that the accused has consistently denied that he made any confession. Actually, at the trial, then, the accused’s position was not that the confession was not free and voluntary, but that he never made a confession. The positions are inconsistent to say the least, and undoubtedly account for the lack of credibility attached to his testimony by both the trial judge and the jury.
Long established guidelines to be applied in determining the admissibility of confessions in criminal cases are clearly expressed in State v. Domino, 234 La. 950, 956, 102 So.2d 227, 229 (1958) as follows:
“The question of the admissibility of a confession is for the judge, its effect for the jury, and whether a sufficient basis was laid for the admission of an alleged voluntary confession is a question of fact upon which the ruling of the trial judge will not be disturbed unless clearly against the preponderance of the evidence.”
The majority has accepted the vague, inconsistent and unsupported testimony of this accused against the preponderating testimony of at least six officers of the law to the contrary. By so doing the court has disregarded the fundamental principle of law expressed in the Domino case.
The one other reversible error which the majority finds is the trial court’s denial of defendant’s motion to have the district attorney furnish for inspection a written *343statement made by the accused. The district attorney asserted that the statement was not a written confession or admission and would not be used unless the accused took the stand and contradicted its content. The trial court then refused to permit its inspection prior to trial. In so doing the court relied upon the authority of State v. Labat, 226 La. 201, 75 So.2d 333 (1954). In my opinion this was not an error, but was a correct ruling based upon the law of this State at that time. See State v. Lea, 228 La. 724, 84 So.2d 169 (1955). The majority of this court, by this decision, extends the rule of State v. Labat which had its origin in State v. Dorsey, 207 La. 928, 22 So.2d 273 (1945). If this decision stands an accused will be permitted to compel the production of statements in the district attorney’s file under the pretense that they may be an aid in the determination of the weight and effect to be given to an oral confession relied upon by the State.
In my opinion this is an unwarranted -and unprecedented action by this court. The written statement in question has never been introduced in evidence and there was no reason to permit an inspection of it any more than there is to permit the inspection of any other written statement in the prosecutor’s file. This statement could not have befen used as a confession or admission for, as I understand the record, the district attorney in his opening statement made no reference to any other written confession or admission. The accused, therefore, could not have been prejudiced by the court’s refusal to permit the inspection and the accused was denied no then existing legal right. La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 557.
I respectfully dissent.