Court Opinion

ID: 9756937
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:10:20.614361+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:33.453875
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice
(dissenting).
While the facts of this case pose an extremely close question, I must respectfully dissent. In my view, Fisher was neither under arrest, subject to custodial interrogation, nor the focus of the investigation at the time he confessed to the slaying. Rather as I read the facts, the confession in the hospital on July 24 was uttered in response to a question posed by the police to Fisher as a possible witness as part of an investigatory fact-finding process, Cf. Commonwealth v. Bordner, 432 Pa. 405, 411, 247 A.2d 612, 615 (1968). Indeed, the record of the hearing below indicates that the police questioned Fisher on July 24 in an effort to corroborate information they had that one Warren Sexton had committed the slaying. Under these facts, I can only conclude that Fisher was being interrogated to determine whether he had any information relevant to the homicide, not whether he committed it.
Furthermore, the fact that Fisher’s hospital room was placed under police guard while he was incapacitated does not, under these facts, demonstrate that he was or that he believed himself to be the subject of custodial interrogation. The record below indicates that the guard was placed by Fisher’s door to protect Fisher from “gang boys” who were trying to find him. While under some circumstances the presence of such a police guard might be misunderstood and translated into a reasonable belief that freedom of movement is being restricted, such is not the case here. There is absolutely no indication in the record that Fisher thought that he was under a restrictive rather than protective guard, or, even more significantly, that he was under a guard at all. Under these facts, I do not see how it can be said that Fisher entertained a reasonable belief that his movement was *224being restricted. Accordingly, in my view, under the record as developed, the statements made by Fisher should not have been suppressed.
JONES, C. J.,and NIX, J., join in this dissenting opinion.