Court Opinion

ID: 9578928
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:49:41.275231+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:38.754713
License: Public Domain

Birdsong, Judge,
dissenting.
The majority concludes that the intrusive questioning of appellant, after he had requested representation by counsel, merely constituted a form of routine question designed to perfect the information necessary to complete an arrest record. OCGA § 17-4-27. I disagree. Contrary to the assertions of the majority, the posing of personal questions requiring appellant to reveal the names and addresses of relatives was neither essential nor routine in the manner in which it impacted upon appellant. While such questioning may well have provided information for the purposes the majority states, it is equally likely that it would provide leads for further criminal investigation should the police elect to transmit such information as criminal intelligence to other police agencies, and also could cause information to be revealed which could place innocent family members in jeopardy of their safety from a member of the ever-growing criminal drug distribution community. As stated by the majority, “the definition of interrogation can extend only to words or actions on the part of police officers that [the police] should have known were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response.” Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U. S. 291, 301-302 (100 SC 1682, 64 LE2d 297). The police should have known that asking personal questions to a frightened suspect, particularly one who has attempted to avail himself of his right to counsel thereby signifying that he believed himself in need of the sage advice of legal counsel, about the identification and location of his family, would be likely to elicit an incriminating response by the suspect. Clearly, such a response would be reasonably likely to protect appellant’s family members either from threat of their safety from the criminal drug dealing element or from the threat of criminal investigation, or both. In this regard, it is worthy of note that the police made no genuine effort to ease appellant’s concern by explaining to him why they were asking such personal questions. Rather, they proceeded in a manner which, in effect capitalized to the maximum upon the psychological pressures and fears being heaped upon appellant.
Accordingly, the questions about his wife, parents, and siblings in *238this case were not such “routine incidents of the custodial relationship” as to supervene his right to remain silent. See Oregon v. Bradshaw, 462 U. S. 1039, 1045 (103 SC 2830, 2835, 77 LE2d 405). Clearly initiating questions regarding close family members was a means of “weighing down” upon appellant, and in fact, caused him to immediately become nervous and upset, and frightened for the safety of his family from some threat. The questioning obviously broke down appellant’s determination to remain silent before he could consult with an attorney as he had lawfully and unequivocally requested. To a suspect who has “indicated his inability to cope with the pressures of custodial interrogation by requesting counsel, any further interrogation without counsel having been provided will surely exacerbate whatever compulsion to speak the suspect may be feeling.” Arizona v. Roberson, 486 U. S. 675, 686 (108 SC 2093, 100 LE2d 704). After the request to remain silent, any questioning considered to be necessary should be subject to the greatest restraint.
Decided March 16, 1990
Rehearing denied March 29, 1990
J. Michael Greene, for appellant.
John R. Parks, District Attorney, for appellee.
I find no difficulty in this case in determining that the continued interrogation was in violation of appellant’s constitutional rights, and that all the statements and confessions thereby obtained should have been suppressed, pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (86 SC 1602, 16 LE2d 694); see Rhode Island v. Innis, supra at 301. And, under the operative circumstances of this case, it cannot be said that the illegally admitted evidence did not affect the jury’s verdict so as to be harmless either beyond a reasonable doubt (as required in cases of violations of constitutional magnitude) or under the reasonable probability test of Johnson v. State, 238 Ga. 59, 61 (230 SE2d 869) and Hamilton v. State, 239 Ga. 72, 77 (235 SE2d 515). The admissible evidence of record does not so overwhelmingly prove appellant’s guilt in this case, that we can sustain the error as harmless in the face of the admission into evidence of appellant’s illegally obtained confession.
I respectfully dissent. I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Carley, Judge Sognier, and Judge Cooper join in this dissent.