Court Opinion

ID: 9721004
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:46:31.033375+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:22.824255
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
I deem myself bound to vote to reverse this conviction because of the erroneous admission of appellant’s confessions. They were tape recorded at the tail end of a three-hour interrogation at the Clay County jail which commenced when appellant voluntarily appeared there in response to a request that he do so. That interrogation started out with an advisement and explanation of the privilege against self-incrimination and the right to counsel. Appellant acknowledged that he understood those rights and, as was the case in North Carolina v. Butler, 441 U.S. 369, 99 S.Ct. 1755, 60 L.Ed.2d 286 (1979), he then also refused to sign a written waiver of those rights. However, unlike the situation in Butler, the refusal here was not followed by a statement like “I will talk to you but I am not signing any form.” Id., at 371, 99 S.Ct. at 1756, 60 L.Ed.2d at 291. Instead, what followed so far as this record is concerned was an intensive hour or more of questioning in a small crowded room, punctuated by conduct of the interrogators involving cursing, falsifying of evidence, and conduct described by one of the officers as “out of control.” Toward the end of this period of interrogation, appellant made seriously incriminating statements from which guilt could be inferred. It was not until this point that appellant was provided a new advisement of Miranda rights and signed a written waiver. This signing was followed by the tape recording of the confessions admitted at trial.
Appellant was very tired, lacking in experience with police procedures, and of lower than average intelligence, having been assigned to special education classes while in high school and never graduated. When one places him in the circumstances described in the above paragraph, no inference is warranted that appellant knowingly and voluntarily waived his privilege against self-incrimination and his right to counsel either from his conduct during the interrogation or from his belated signing of the waiver form after the coercive actions of his interrogators.
DICKSON, J., concurs.