Court Opinion

ID: 9540536
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:17:12.470579+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:59:57.589288
License: Public Domain

Parker, C.J.,
dissenting: Upon the hearing in the absence of the jury in respect to the admission in evidence of a purported confession by defendant here, the defendant testified in substance: Mr. Bowers and Mr. Upchurch went to Bexley, Ohio, and brought him back to Raleigh. He had made no confession in respect to the instant case before he was brought back to Raleigh. The officers treated him very well on their way back to North Carolina. After he got back to North Carolina, they wanted him to make a confession, and he would not do so. No violence was used by these two officers and he was not threatened, but they would not let him call his sister in Wilson, North Carolina, and they refused to let him talk to a lawyer, saying “You ain’t got no money and a lawyer ain’t going to talk to you when you ain’t got no money.” These officers told him that if he would make a confession they would get him out on probation. Later on he made a taped recording, which was a confession. He was promised probation eventually if he would make this statement. It was Mr. Bowers, he believes, who promised this to him, but it has been so long he does not remember. It must have been Mr. Bowers *204or Mr. Upchurch. Captain R. E. Goodwin of the detective division of the Raleigh police force testified in respect to a confession the defendant made to him. Captain Goodwin testified: “I don’t know what Sergeant Bowers or Sergeant Upchurch may have promised Mr. Stafford.” Captain Goodwin testified that Sergeant Bowers is sick in bed, and has been in bed for several days with influenza. There is no evidence to indicate that Sergeant Upchurch was not available as a witness. Judge Hall found that defendant’s confession was made freely and voluntarily, and is, therefore, admissible in evidence. In my opinion, Judge Hall should have heard the testimony of Sergeant Bowers and Sergeant Upchurch, or at least one of them, before he found that the confession here was freely and voluntarily made. If Sergeants Bowers and Upchurch, or either one of them, induced the confession by either threats or a promise of securing probation for defendant, it is incompetent, and it is to be presumed that those influences still operated upon defendant when he confessed to Captain Goodwin. I express no opinion as to whether Sergeant Bowers or Sergeant Upchurch used any threats or promises to secure a confession from defendant. In my opinion, the facts do not support Judge Hall’s ruling that the confession was freely and voluntarily made and is admissible in evidence, in the absence of any testimony by Sergeants Bowers and Upchurch, or either of them. My vote is to hold the confession incompetent upon the showing before us, and to award defendant a new trial. Upon a new trial the court can hear the evidence of Sergeants Bowers and Upchurch, and adequately and safely determine the admissibility of this confession.