Court Opinion

ID: 9654637
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:45:25.807805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:12.005825
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice
concurring.
I am not in agreement with so much of the majority opinion that seems to require that the appellant must provide a complete narrative statement of the pretrial hearing of his Motion to Suppress his confession before he can complain that the trial court erred in failing to suppress the confession.
It appears from the record that the suppression hearing was not stenographically *672reported, but was only recorded on audio tape, and that a portion of that tape has been misplaced. The appellant relies on the remaining portion of that tape in claiming that the ruling of the trial judge admitting his confession was erroneous. That portion of the tape which remains includes his testimony to the effect that he asked to see his lawyer before he was questioned, and was told that he “wouldn’t need an attorney(;) that all they (attorneys) would do is take my money.”
At the pretrial hearing the burden is on the Commonwealth to show the confession was properly obtained by a preponderance of the evidence. Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477, 92 S.Ct. 619, 30 L.Ed.2d 618 (1972). Under ordinary circumstances, if the only evidence in the record, albeit incomplete, is to the effect that the confession was not properly obtained, I see no duty on the appellant to provide a narrative statement supplementing such record. All he could add is what he claims was not said. However, in this case there are compelling circumstances indicating that the trial court did not err.
First, we have the trial testimony of both police officers who were present, indicating that the initial questioning was routine and, by implication, that appellant did not ask to see an attorney before the questioning began.
Next, the transcript of the suppression hearing was filed on September 27, 1982, the trial commenced on October 5, 1982, and twenty-one months later on January 30, 1984, the Brief for Appellant was filed. It is inconceivable that this Brief for Appellant would not have claimed error in failing to suppress this confession on this grounds if there was any substance to the claim that the Commonwealth had failed to make out a prima facie case for admission of the confession at the suppression hearing.
The point is first raised in the Supplemental Brief for Appellant filed November 12, 1984. Patently the appellant has belatedly discovered that á portion of the tape of the suppression hearing has been misplaced and seized on this to raise a point previously nonexistent.
Under ordinary circumstances, where such testimony as has been provided indicates the trial court’s ruling was erroneous, I would not impose upon a defendant the burden to provide a complete transcript of a suppression hearing before claiming error in failure to suppress. However, I agree with the result in the present case because I am convinced the claimed error did not occur.