Court Opinion

ID: 9716350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:35:06.104562+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:59:13.491508
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE RYAN, dissenting: I cannot agree with the opinion of the majority of this court which vacates the judgment and remands this case to the circuit court to determine if the confession was voluntarily given. The circuit court has already conducted a hearing and determined that the confession was voluntary. It appears to me that this court is asking the circuit court to perform this same function again. Of course, the test of the admissibility of a confession is voluntariness. This is so whether the confessing person is an adult or a child. Haley v. Ohio, 332 U.S. 596, 92 L. Ed. 224, 68 S. Ct. 302, cited in the majority opinion, does not change this criterion. In Haley the court advised that certain factors may influence a child that would not influence an adult. Therefore, when a child is involved, a court should use special care in scrutinizing the record to ascertain if some influence did overcome his will to resist in such a manner as to render his confession involuntary. The opinion of this court assumes that the trial judge did not use special care in ascertaining if the confession is voluntary. There is nothing in this record which indicates that special care was not exercised or that the trial judge did not apply the proper standards. The court apparently has based its assumption of a lack of special care on the statement the trial judge made in passing on the motion to suppress the confession to the effect that a 16-year-old boy should not be handled differently than an adult. The statement is set out in the opinion. The sentence immediately preceding this statement, which is also set out in the opinion, clearly shows that the judge was, at that time, not talking about a determination of the voluntariness of the confession, but he was discussing whether “a boy 16 years old who is charged as an adult should be handled differently than an adult in his being advised of his rights.” (Emphasis added.) Later in the court’s decision, the judge referred to the question of whether the statement of the defendant was voluntary. He there indicated that in arriving at his decision he also considered the fact that the defendant’s mother and brother had consented to the taking of the polygraph examination. In my opinion the proper standards were applied by the trial judge in determining the admissibility of the confession; the record does not indicate that the trial judge did not give special consideration to the circumstances surrounding the confession, and there is no reason to remand the case to the trial court for another hearing on the voluntariness of the confession. Using the “special care in scrutinizing the record” standard of Haley, I am convinced that the trial court’s finding that the confession was voluntarily given is supported by the overwhelming weight of the evidence. There was no attempt to take advantage of the defendant’s tender years. When he first agreed to take the polygraph examination his mother was present and also agreed that he should take the examination. He was then released from custody with the understanding that he would meet the officers the following day to go for the examination. When he was told by one of his brothers that “a lie test couldn’t be beat,” he didn’t keep his appointment with the officers. Later after he had again been picked up by the police and after talking to his parole officer, he said he would take the polygraph examination if someone would go with him. His brother Sam was then asked and was permitted to accompany the defendant and the officers to Chicago for the examination. His brother Sam was called into the examining room when the defendant admitted to the officers that he had shot the victims. Upon the return to Rockford the defendant’s brother remained with him. The defendant’s mother was called by an assistant State’s Attorney that night. She was told that the defendant had admitted the shooting and that a statement was going to be taken from him. She was asked if she wanted to be present and she said that she did not but that she would come to the police station the following morning. Regardless of his youth the defendant was well aware of his rights. He testified that when he was given his Miranda warnings, he understood that he had a right to have a lawyer present. He asked the officers to call a particular lawyer who had represented him before, but he was told that the court would appoint the public defender. I am convinced from the evidence in the record that in spite of his age the defendant was quite knowledgeable concerning the proceedings and his rights. For these reasons I would not remand the case to the trial court. UNDERWOOD, C.J., joins in this dissent.