Court Opinion

ID: 9753612
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:20:14.238089+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:39.076799
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice SUTTELL,
concurring.
I write separately to signify my earnest endorsement of Justice Flaherty’s comments concerning the myriad benefits to the criminal justice system resulting from the electronic recording of police interrogations. It is a practice greatly to be encouraged.
*1185I believe that it is neither necessary nor prudent, however, for this Court to exercise its supervisory authority at this time to mandate that a trial justice give any particular instruction in this regard. As the majority suggests, the fact that law enforcement declined to record an interrogation when it had the capability of doing so is a circumstance that may be developed at trial by counsel and effectively argued to a jury. Moreover, the defendant in this case requested two specific jury instructions, neither of which in my judgment was appropriate.
Accordingly, I support my dissenting colleague’s predilection for electronic recording but fully concur with the majority opinion.