Court Opinion

ID: 9776091
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:18:44.491332+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:34.306526
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice, dissenting. Corey Jermo Conner, a tenth grader at Turrell Alternative School, turned seventeen on July 19, 1996. On that day, he turned himself in to the police station in West Memphis because the police had come to his home, when he was not there, to question him in connection with a homicide. In the initial questioning, Mr. Conner denied having had a weapon at the scene of the crime. The questioning began with details about those present at the scene of the crime, where Mr. Conner freely admitted having been. He was asked about his friends who were present, where they lived, and what they had done on the previous day. At one point, Mr. Conner mentioned that his cousin Maleka was at his home when the police had been there to question him. The officers asked him the last name of his cousin and then ridiculed him for not knowing it. Thereafter, the questioning included the following: Burch: Do you know the charges you’re faced? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: Capital Murder, do you know what will happen if you are proven guilty for Capital Murder? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: They strap you to a table and stick a needle in your arm and you go' to sleep and you never wake up, that’s what happens, and I don’t believe a damn thing you’ve said since you started opening your mouth, you follow me? And I will tell you why. Because I was here until 10:00 o’clock last night talking to people, and eyewitnesses to all of this that went on, that had nothing to do with it, you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: They didn’t have nothing to do with this. Conner: I didn’t have anything to do with it either, and that’s the truth, I am telling you all, and you all can believe me or not, I am telling you all the truth. Burch: Now, we can do this two ways. Eddie and I can be your best friend you have, you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: We can save your life, we can save your life. We can be responsible for strapping you on a table, it’s up to you. Now if you want to get a little smart between your ears, and start telling us the truth, as you see it, then Eddie and I can work with you and maybe save your life. I am not promising you, but we can work with you and I am a man of my word and I won’t break it, you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: But you are sitting there and play me for a fool, and trying to play Mr. West for a fool, and we ain’t buying it son, we are just not gonna do it. I can be the most meanest son of a bitch, that you ever walked across, and I don’t believe what you are saying. Conner: Well, I am telling you all the truth, I am telling you all the truth. That’s what happened. Burch: I am going to walk out of here and when I come back, we are going to start all over again, do you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: And what you tell me, is what’s going to direct your future, for the rest of your life, however short it may be. West: Corey, what the deal is, ain’t nothing you’ve told us yet, went on, what for, about what other people have told us. Conner: Mr. West, I am telling you the truth, this is the honest to God truth. I, me and my friends did not kill nobody. I am telling you the truth, that’s the honest to God truth. That’s what happened. That’s what happened. West: I don’t understand what you, I understand that you don’t want to be charged with Capital Murder and I understand that you’re telling me that you ain’t done nothing, but it’s more that happened than what you are telling me. Conner: Well, whoever shot him, I don’t know. I know that me and my friends didn’t do it. West: Okay. Shawn Gilliam live on, live where? Conner: Over there by Maddox School, Burns Street, don’t know the address. West: Where does Andre McDaniel live, what is his address that he live at? Conner: Down on Mimosa. West: What about Colin Ingram? Conner: He stay next door to me. West: Okay. Conner: 231 West Jefferson. West: So if I go and talk to these guys, these guys are going to tell me the same thing that you just told me? Conner: Yes, sir. West: Uh —. Conner: Yes, sir. West: You’re sure. Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: One of them are going to accept a deal, one of them is going to plea, do you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: The rest of you is going down, one of you is going try to (inaudible). Conner: Well, I — . West: It’s called plea bargaining. Conner: I understand that, but I am telling you all the truth. West: Somebody is going to tell on the other. Conner: Well, I am telling you all the truth. West: I want to believe you Corey, but it’s hard to believe you when you get four or five people that telling something totally different from what you’re saying. Ain’t nothing you have told us yet corresponding to that these other people said, nothing, noting, you sitting up in here like an angel. Burch: You’re totally innocent. West: Yeah. Burch: You didn’t do nothing. Conner: I didn’t. Burch: You’re an innocent bystander. Conner: I didn’t, I am an innocent bystander that was on a bike. Burch: May I tell you something right now. Picture yourself in court, picture 12 people sitting over there that really don’t want to be there, they are really pissed off, do you follow me? Conner: Yeah. Burch: We put on five witnesses, five, that state, now these five witnesses that are not members of the group, they don’t know the other people, they just happen to be in the area, do you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: But everyone of them know you personally, they went to school with you, they know where you live, everyone one of them says, we seen him with a gun, shooting, everyone of them. You get your chance, you sit up there on the stand and you’re doing just like you’re doing right now, with your big dull eyes, and saying, I am an innocent bystander, I didn’t do nothing. Now these 12 people sitting out there, what are they going to think. You tell me, what are they going to do, they are going to convict your ass, and send you away. I am telling you right now between the three of us, we will work around a lot of things and probably will end up and save your ass, do you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: If you come through and tell us the scoop, drop your damn loyalty and anything else that you have to the streets out there, because of your five, what is it? Conner: Four. Burch: Four. One of them is gonna to cry and save his ass, you’re lucky, you are the first one to get the opportunity, do you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: The others, are going to burn, bubba, they are going to burn in hell, they are going to be strapped to a damn table, a damn needle in their arm, and they are going to be gone, your chance, I am going to offer it to you, you blow it, you ain’t getting another one, because I got a whole lot to do today, and I am not going to set up here and plea with you to save your life, do you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: It’s your life, and quite personally, I don’t care. One of you four is going to five, the other three will go down, I will guarantee you that, do you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: Now we are talking the same language. Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: Last chance, no more. Now, Eddie, I am a son of a bitch, do you follow me? I will give you a chance, now I’ll bust my ass to help you if you try to help yourself. You don’t, I’ll burn your ass in a heartbeat, that’s the way I am, that’s the way I work. West: Well, what he is saying, is that we are not going to waste any more time, all right. Do you want to retract your story and tell us what happened, uh, we are going to close the interview out. Burch: We will start it all over again. It’ll be like it never happened, and we will start everything over and you’ll tell us the truth, do you follow me? If you tell us the truth. West: We know what you’re telling us now didn’t happen that way. Conner: I am telling —. Burch: You think about it before you open your mouth, because I am ready to wrap this shit up now. Think about it. Before you open your mouth, think about what’s going to happen within the next year. The end of next year, think about where you are going to be and what’s going to be going on. Before you open your mouth, think about it. Now, we are going to start from the beginning, all the way from the beginning. If I get up and walk out of here, your days are gone man because I am not believing you, do you follow me? Conner: Yes, sir. Burch: And as far as I am concerned, you’re a damn murderer. You deserve to be strapped to a table and stick a needle up your arm. If this new Huckabee have his way, your new governor, he’s going to reinstate the electric chair, he ain’t going this way no more. That’s one of Huckabee’s promises for law and order. I want to hear the truth. Start from the time that you get on Winchell Street and what took place, because I want to know, I want to hear it from your mouth. We presume custodial statements to be involuntary, and the burden is on the State to show voluntariness. Johnson v. State, 307 Ark. 525, 528, 823 S.W.2d 440, 441 (1992). Among the factors to be considered are the age, education and intelligence of the accused; the length of the detention during which the statement was given; the use of repeated or prolonged questioning; the use of mental or physical punishment or coercion; and the advice or lack of advice of an accused’s constitutional rights. Shaw v. State, 299 Ark. 474, 478, 773 S.W.2d 827, 829 (1989). The majority opinion suggests that the State waived the death penalty in this case and thus “honored” the promise made by the police officers to save Mr. Conner’s life. I am unaware of any indication in the record that there was any connection between the promise made and the waiver of the death penalty. Through its totahty-of-the-circumstances analysis, the majority approves the use of Mr. Conner’s subsequent inculpatory statement and, in effect, condones this conduct on the part of the police officers, although “greatly troubled” by it. Mr. Conner was ridiculed, lied to, threatened, intimidated, and promised a reward that the officers were powerless to deliver. The majority concludes that was overbalanced by the fact that this seventeen-year-old tenth grader (1) was physically larger than the two interrogating officers, (2) sounded calm, (3) had several hours to contemplate the threats that had been made to him, and (4) spoke with one of his friends. My conclusion is to the contrary. I respectfully dissent. Thornton, J., joins in this dissent.