Court Opinion

ID: 9465555
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:49:47.363522+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:14.618432
License: Public Domain

COLEMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
At the time of the murder undoubtedly committed in this case, Jerry Lane Jurek was 22 years of age. After spending a late afternoon drinking beer, he made repeated efforts to engage 10 year old Wendy Adams in conversation at the Cuero City Park. They were next seen as Jurek sped through town in his pickup, the child in the back screaming for help. Why nobody gave chase and nipped this crime in the bud is beyond explanation. Wendy’s body was recovered two days later from the Guadalupe river, see Jurek v. State, 522 S.W.2d 934, 937 (Tex.Cr.App., 1975).
While one must be extra careful of constitutional rights in a case involving such a depraved, atrocious, unspeakable crime, in which a ten year old child has mercilessly been robbed of her life, I must agree with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the United States District Court that Jurek failed to make out a case justifying federal intervention.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the evidence sustained the findings of the trial judge and jury that Jurek’s confessions were voluntarily made, Id. at 942. Its opinion will be appended to this dissent.
As in all habeas corpus cases, the burden was on the petitioner to establish a denial of constitutional rights, Lokos v. Capps, 5 Cir., 1976, 528 F.2d 576, 578. At the evidentiary hearing in our District Court the petitioner was represented by able counsel, one of whom was from a prestigious out-of-state law firm. Nevertheless, Jurek did not take the witness stand. He gave no evidence as to any coercion or involuntariness. If he has a mental impairment of such a degree that he could not, or did not, understand his rights or the nature of his confessions, the District Court was not allowed to observe it from the witness stand.
The District Court specifically found that there was no evidence that Jurek’s incarceration in the Victoria jail resulted in lack of communication with his family; it further found that there was no evidence that Ju*686rek’s confessions resulted from or were tainted by delay in taking Jurek before a magistrate. These findings are not clearly erroneous.
No constitutional significance can be attributed to the fact that Jurek was arrested without a warrant, after he had been seen speeding through town in a pickup carrying a screaming ten year old girl, crying out for help, since which she had not been seen. These circumstances thundered probable cause to believe that a felony had been committed and that Jurek committed it. It must be noted, too, that at the time of the arrest the officers thought the child had only been kidnapped and was still alive. They were trying to learn where she could be found. This effort was what prompted the trip to Austin and the polygraph test. What they unexpectedly found out was that the child had been thrown in the river and thus murdered.
The majority opinion recognizes the testimony that prior to his confession Jurek was frequently advised of his rights and refused an attorney. This is said to make no difference because “it is not clear that Jurek would be able to understand the warnings unless they were couched in the simplest language”. This turns the applicable burden of proof squarely on its head; it was up to Jurek to show that he was not able to understand, and had not understood, the warnings. The record shows, without dispute, that a probation officer who witnessed the first confession, testified that Jurek was fully aware of his rights; that he, the probation officer, explained those rights to him in lay language; and Jurek assured him that he was giving the confession of his own free will.
We have never seen Jurek; we have not seen or heard any of the witnesses. The majority disagrees with the findings of all the judges and jurors who have done so and it follows its own notions of what the evidence should have established. In my opinion, such “independent findings” are unjustified.
As I would have done, the District Court attributed no significance to the fact that Jurek was barefoot (and without a shirt) until he got to the jail. I see too many barefoot, unshirted adults strolling around today to think that this is a factor of any constitutional significance.
I make no extended comment on the discussion of the majority about the dismissal, without objection, of the prospective juror.
Since Jurek is to be awarded a new trial on the ground that his confessions were involuntary as a matter of law (it cannot be done on the factual findings heretofore made in the appropriate courts) and a new jury is to be selected if there is another trial, the discussion of the Witherspoon issue is unnecessary in the disposition of the appeal. Therefore, I regard that discussion as dicta. For the record, however, I will say that I do not agree that Jurek is entitled to relief on this point. I particularly disagree with conducting an ex parte bar examination of counsel’s understanding of the law. If we are to start that practice in the absence of a finding of ineffective assistance of counsel, we are opening up new and unjustified avenues of federal habeas corpus litigation.
I am not deaf to the helpless cries of the child being forcibly drowned in the Guadalupe. I am not insensitive to the requirement that confessions must be knowingly and understandably given. The record is devoid of anything that would reasonably suggest that Jurek is innocent of the murder. In my opinion, the record shows that he confessed because he knew he was guilty. I see no warrant for rejecting the uncontradicted testimony of those who personally knew the circumstances under which the confessions were made.
Therefore, with all deference to the views of my Brethren to the contrary, I must respectfully, but emphatically, dissent.
APPENDIX
(Opinion of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals)
Lastly, appellant claims his confessions were involuntary. He argues the record fails to show he “voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently” waived his constitutional rights. Appellant cites his limited mental capacity and the length and conduct of the *687interrogation which led to the confessions as factors which indicate the confessions were involuntary.
Appellant was arrested at 1:15 a. m. on August 17, approximately six hours after the child’s disappearance. At police headquarters, the two arresting officers read appellant his Miranda warnings, and questioned him for approximately 45 minutes. He denied any knowledge concerning the child’s whereabouts. At 2:30 a. m., he was placed in a jail cell, which contained a bed, and was left alone until the next morning, when the county attorney, who also read appellant his Miranda warnings, questioned him for approximately 15 minutes. He continued to deny any knowledge about the child’s whereabouts. Two or three other officers spoke with him briefly during the morning.
Later in the day, two officers took appellant to Austin for a polygraph test. During the examination, he admitted murdering the girl. Her body was later recovered on the basis of information supplied by appellant at this time. The officers arrived back at Cuero with appellant at approximately 9:30 a. m. He was immediately taken before Magistrate Albert Ley, who read appellant his rights from a magistrate’s certificate. Approximately four hours later, after being questioned by the district attorney and the county attorney, appellant gave his first confession. The confession stated that he killed the child because she made derogatory comments about his family. He was taken to the County Jail at Victoria at about 1:15 a. m. He was returned to Cuero at 2:00 p. m. and gave his second confession at 7:30 that evening after again speaking with the district attorney and the county attorney and several others. In the confession he stated that he had not told the complete truth in his earlier statement and that he killed the girl because she refused his sexual advances.
The record reflects that appellant was repeatedly warned of his constitutional rights under Miranda. There is no evidence in the record that appellant was deprived of food or sleep, or that he was not in complete control of his faculties when he gave the confessions. He was left alone in his cells between interrogations and was offered food and beverages at various times during this two day period. There is evidence that he was alert enough to make minor corrections in the confessions before signing them.
The court conducted a separate hearing on the motion to suppress the two written confessions. Appellant did not testify either at the hearing on the motion to suppress or at the trial on the merits. The court entered an order finding that the confessions were voluntarily given. Furthermore, the court submitted the question of the voluntariness of the confessions to the jury in its charge.
Absent undisputed evidence which would render the confession inadmissible as a matter of law, the Court will not reverse the findings of the trial judge and jury as to the voluntariness of the confession. Lisenba v. California, 314 U.S. 219, 62 S.Ct. 280, 86 L.Ed. 166; Jacks v. State, 167 Tex.Cr.R. 1, 317 S.W.2d 731; Scanlin v. State, 165 Tex.Cr.R. 183, 305 S.W.2d 357; McHenry v. State, 163 Tex.Cr.R. 436, 293 S.W.2d 773.
The record amply supports the finding of the court and the jury adversely'to appellant. Compare Kendrick v. State, Tex.Cr. App., 481 S.W.2d 877; Grayson v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 438 S.W.2d 553.