Court Opinion

ID: 9679079
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:40:21.341688+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:09.232468
License: Public Domain

BECKER, Justice.
I dissent.
I.From my reading of the printed record it appears the evidence to prove defendant received and understood the Miranda warnings at any time is wholly inadequate. The testimony of officers Burns, Collins and Warrick that the warnings were given fails to indicate defendant heard the warnings, much less understood them. The only fair reading of the record indicates defendant had just jumped from the roof top when the warnings were purportedly given. Davis was injured at the time. Several hours later at the hospital the objectionable statement was elicited.
II. In reaching its conclusions the majority considers two other matters impelling comment.
Despite repeated urgings by the attorney general’s office in other cases we have, to this point, resisted the temptation to decide defendant’s constitutional rights on the basis of failure to file motion to suppress. If this rule is adopted it should be adopted in a manner which will assure:
1. A hearing in every case where confessions or admissions are to be used.
2. Full notice to defendant as to the details of the evidence to be used so admissibility can be properly evaluated prior to trial.
3. Adequate procedural safeguards to assure relative invulnerability to eventual direct or collateral attack.
State ex rel. Rasmussen v. Tahash, 272 Minn. 539, 141 N.W.2d 3, 13 provides a rule for Minnesota courts supplying the above requirements. The bulk of that rule is worth repeating here. “(1) At the time of arraignment when a defendant pleads not guilty, or as soon as possible thereafter, the state will advise the court as to whether its-case against the defendant will include evidence obtained as the result of a search and seizure; evidence discovered because of a confession or statements in the nature of a confession obtained from the defendant; or confessions or statements in the nature of confessions.
“(2) Upon being so informed, the court will formally advise the attorney for the defendant (or the defendant himself if he refuses legal counsel) that he may, if he chooses, move the court to suppress the evidence so secured or the confession so obtained if his contention is that such evidence was secured or confession obtained *913in violation of defendant’s constitutional rights.
“(3) If the defendant elects to contest the admissibility of the evidence upon Federal constitutional grounds, a pretrial fact hearing on the admissibility of the evidence will be held in open court with the defendant present and represented or advised by counsel. Upon the record of the evidence elicited at the time of such hearing, a determination by the trial court as to whether the receipt of the evidence contested will vitiate defendant’s constitutional rights will be made. It will be the obligation of the state to proceed first at such a hearing identifying the evidence which will be offered against the defendant and showing that the circumstances under which it was obtained were consistent with constitutional requirements. The defendant in presenting his case in opposition to the claims of admissibility may testify without waiver of his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. The factors to be considered in determining whether a confession is valid are as outlined in State v. Taylor, 270 Minn. 333, 133 N.W.2d 828.
“(4) If the defendant, having been advised before trial that evidence obtained as the result of search and seizure will be offered against him or having been informed that a confession or statements in the nature of a confession will be offered in evidence at trial, and having been told that he may have a test of the admissibility of this evidence upon constitutional grounds before the trial, fails or refuses to request such a hearing, any objection which he may otherwise make based upon this ground may be deemed waived.
“(5) If the state, having been requested to disclose whether evidence obtained as a result of a search and seizure will be offered against defendant at the time of the trial and having been requested to state whether a confession or admission in the nature of a confession will be a part of its case, fails or refuses to make such disclosure it may be inferred that any such evidence offered at the time of trial was obtained in violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights.
“The procedure which we have outlined deals only with evidence obtained as the result of a search and seizure and evidence consisting of or produced by confessions on the part of the defendant. However, the steps which have been suggested as a method of dealing with evidence of this type will indicate to counsel and to the trial courts that the pretrial consideration of other evidentiary problems, the resolution of which is needed to assure the integrity of the trial when conducted, will be most useful and that this court encourages the use of such procedures wherever practical.”
Failure to provide such safeguards will inevitably invite disposition of these matters on constitutionally indefensible grounds.
III. If we are to recognize the California doctrine of “harmless error”, Chapman v. State of California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705, we should do so only after due deliberation. However, we should recognize the United States Supreme Court’s admonitions in this regard and analyze the evidence with those admonitions in mind. This part of the opinion also appears to be obiter dicta since the majority does not place the decision on that ground but adds recognition of this doctrine in one short paragraph at the end of the opinion.
I would reverse and remand for retrial.
MASON and RAWLINGS, JJ., join in this dissent.