Court Opinion

ID: 9718260
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:19:47.711422+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:58.265816
License: Public Domain

Cutter, J.
(concurring) I think that the ambiguous and somewhat contradictory evidence on the voir dire does not warrant the conclusion that Fisher (although warned of his right to remain silent and to be represented by counsel) was informed by the Springfield police on the morning of July 11, 1966, (a) that he could have counsel present at any police questioning, or (b) that, if he could not afford counsel, counsel would be provided for him at State expense. Perhaps the Miranda case, 384 U. S. 436, 468-479, on the present record, must be inflexibly construed as requiring that Fisher’s apparently truthful confession be excluded if less than the complete warning (prescribed by the majority opinion in that case) was given on the morning of July 11. I perceive in the record no occasion for any warning until shortly after *557Fisher’s unsatisfactory explanation of the scratches upon his person. If the Miranda case must be inflexibly interpreted, Fisher’s death sentence should be reversed, and the present case should be remanded for a new trial in which the record concerning the police investigation less than a month after the Miranda decision can be developed more clearly and fully. Understandably a more complete record was not thought necessary at the carefully conducted trial only about three months and a half after that decision.
The voir dire testimony warrants the following conclusions: (1) Fisher was given the complete Miranda-type warning and an opportunity to use the telephone on the evening of July 11. This was before any significant interrogation after his return to Springfield from Boston. There he and others (not like him suspected but only material witnesses) had taken polygraph tests after signing written waivers which are not before us. (2) No significant questioning (other than that involved in the polygraph test, not itself admissible in evidence, Commonwealth v. Fatalo, 346 Mass. 266) took place during the trip to Boston. (3) The police were attempting to comply fairly with requirements for custodial interrogation as they understood them. (4) Fisher proceeded cooperatively to answer police questions after each set of warnings. From his whole conduct, it could be inferred that he had decided to attempt by himself to allay police suspicions without asserting any rights of which he had been told.
It seems to me, in all the circumstances, that the voir dire evidence should be regarded as warranting the conclusion that there was substantial compliance with the purport of ■ the Miranda decision. Cf. the Westover situation discussed in the Miranda case, 384 U. S. 436, 494-495. I do not think that this record discloses literal compliance.
I concur in the result.