Court Opinion

ID: 9710343
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:07:43.676953+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:56.037302
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE KUNCE, specially concurring: I concur with the majority opinion in all respects except the ruling on the admissibility of defendant’s confession. The evidence in the record touching on the defendant’s mental capacity indicated that he was mentally retarded, a mental condition unlike mental illness that usually is neither curable nor effectively treated. Yet, on February 18, 1977, only 3M months after confinement for “treatment” at the Chester Mental Health Center, the defendant’s fitness was reviewed and he was found to have regained his fitness to stand trial. He had received a brain injury at the age of 5. In school he failed all his classes. At age 17 he possessed the intelligence of an 8-year-old child. His verbal skill was 63 and showed his mental and performance functions equal to a child of less than 6 with social judgment of a 9-year-old. It was the opinion of the school psychologist that had the defendant’s current mental condition been similar to that with which he had functioned at the time he was tested in school, he would not have been able to read nor understand the constitutional rights read to him. On arrest, he was advised of his Miranda rights. At the police station he signed a written Miranda waiver form. At the time, he informed the officer that he could neither read nor write but could print his name. The officer had him initial each of his rights and print his name beneath a declaration of his waiver of those rights. He misspelled his own name. The officers gave no particular attention to defendant’s mental handicap. There was no further evidence of questioning the defendant as to his age, education, social history or any other attempt to ascertain routinely the extent of his understanding or comprehension of his rights or other basic matters that might give some clue to the extent of his mental capacity by the officers or anyone else. There was no detailed or special formulation of defendant’s rights or the warnings given that would further assist such a limited 17-year-old in understanding them. After printing his name, he was left alone seated in the foreboding police station for 3/2 hours. This would have a coercive effect on the defendant. Then the interrogation by two police officers began. The interrogation lasted 1 hour 21 minutes and culminated in a four-page statement allegedly read to the defendant, given to him to read, and no further inquiry being made as to whether he could read or write. Three months after his confession, the trial court found him mentally unfit to stand trial. This alone strongly buttresses defendant’s contention that he did not knowingly and intelligently waive his rights. Although a defendant’s subnormal intelligence alone does not prevent his understanding or waiving of his right to remain silent, his mental capabilities, or lack thereof, must be considered as one important factor along with his background, age, experience, conduct and characteristics. All bear upon his ability to make knowledgeable and independent decisions. A statement elicited from a 17-year-old of subnormal intelligence is not necessarily inadmissible, but his youthful age as well as his mentality and familiarity with the English language must weigh upon the final determination. People v. Stone (5th Dist. 1978), 61 Ill. App. 3d 654, 378 N.E.2d 263; People v. Turner (1973), 56 Ill. 2d 201, 306 N.E.2d 27. Under close scrutiny of all of these facts and the total circumstances surrounding the confession, considering the defendant’s age, mental and emotional capacity, I am convinced that the defendant’s confession was not voluntary and free of compulsion. Contrary to the majority, I would find that the trial court’s initial ruling that the confession was admissible was error as against the manifest weight of the evidence. Although the majority indicate that the new psychiatric examination may alert the trial court to hold a new suppression hearing, the opinion does not so mandate. I would require, in reversing the trial court, that a new suppression hearing on the admissibility of defendant’s confession be held.