Court Opinion

ID: 9626155
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:03:49.699614+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:30.023920
License: Public Domain

BURKE, J.
I dissent. The trial judge quite properly suspended the imposition of sentence in this ease, placed defendant on probation for three years and ordered restitution. No doubt this was done because of defendant's previous good record and his voluntary act in going to the police station with his mother to return the stolen goods and to make a clean breast of his complicity in receiving stolen property.
When the police officer advised him he was investigating *773the burglary and that defendant need not make a statement at that time unless he so wished defendant said he had decided to voluntarily come to the station himself, with the items, and clear the matter up. When defendant was further advised that anything he said might be used against him he nevertheless told his story which the officer testified to at the trial.
As this court said in People v. Cotter, ante, pp. 386, 393, 396 [46 Cal.Rptr. 622, 405 P.2d 862], the cases of Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 [84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977], People v. Dorado, 62 Cal.2d 338 [42 Cal.Rptr. 169, 398 P.2d 361], and People v. Stewart, 62 Cal.2d 571 [43 Cal.Rptr. 201, 400 P.2d 97], “were aimed at restraining law enforcement officers, once the accusatory stage has been reached, from the use of inquisitorial techniques in seeking to prove the charge against the accused out of his own mouth. They were never intended to discourage a defendant from volunteering to the police his complicity in the perpetration of a crime nor to prohibit the police from receiving and acting upon such confessions. Certainly, here, there were no inquisitorial techniques or processes of interrogation, designed to elicit incriminating statements, engaged in by the . . . officers ....
“It is noteworthy that in Escobedo, Dorado and Stewart the defendants were denying complicity and the police were openly accusing them and urging them to tell the truth. By contrast, here the defendant was merely asked to state what had happened. He was not being accused of a crime which he had previously denied committing, which was the ease in Escobedo, Dorado and Stewart, but in fact was asked concerning a crime which he had already freely admitted having committed.
“Neither this court, nor the United States Supreme Court, has ever taken the position that the desire of a guilty man to confess his crime should be stifled, impeded, discouraged, or hindered in any way. The contrary is true.”
Here, the statements made to the investigating officer were entirely free and voluntary. Defendant’s mother testified that defendant had called her to advise her that he was going to the police station to return the goods and clear up the matter—she asked him to wait so that she could accompany him, which she did.
I would affirm the conviction and the order placing defendant on probation.
McComb, J., and Mosk, J., concurred.