Court Opinion

ID: 9714471
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:38:25.016796+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:26.330744
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion
DeBruler, J.
Here, at the sheriff’s office, the accused admitted the killing and described the location of the victim’s body. He was then taken by an officer from the sheriff’s office to the jail. While walking along, he asked to see his lawyer, *205Marion Rice, and was assured that an officer would contact the lawyer for him. Before the lawyer arrived at the jail, the accused was taken to the riverbank and asked to point out exactly where he had thrown the body in. He physically pointed out the spot.
At trial, defense counsel did not object to the incriminating statement the accused gave at the sheriff's office, but did object to a question propounded by the prosecutor to a State’s witness, which was intended to bring out the fact that the accused had physically pointed out the spot along the river. The ensuing in-trial hearing on this objection resulted in a full and fair judicial inquiry into the advice of rights and treatment provided the accused by the police from the moment of arrest up to the point in time when he admitted the killing in the sheriff’s office.
There exists, therefore, a perfectly fair and rational ground upon which to ignore any possible waiver for failure to object to the admission of the incriminating statements or to make a sufficiently explicit motion to correct errors. The severity of the offense is not such a ground. It is the existence of this full and fair judicial inquiry into the events leading to the accused’s making of the incriminating statements, for the purpose of determining the admissibility of the riverbank gesture, which provides, also, a basis for the decision to review the admissibility of those first incriminating statements. Montes v. State, (1975) 263 Ind. 390, 332 N.E.2d 786; Hardin v. State, (1970) 254 Ind. 56, 257 N.E.2d 671; Wilson v. State, (1943) 222 Ind. 63, 51 N.E.2d 848.
Note. — Reported at 341 N.E.2d 505.