Court Opinion

ID: 9740147
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:28:54.876606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:16.454524
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE CRAVEN, dissenting: I cannot accept the majority’s characterization of Dennis Ellis’ statement as a “confession.” Illinois Supreme Court cases defining “confessions” have set a rather strict standard for that term. In People v. Stapleton, 300 Ill. 471, 133 N.E. 224, the court established that a statement which does not acknowledge the commission of a criminal act is not a confession. In that case, several policemen testified as to their recollection of statements defendant made shortly after a shooting. A written statement was also introduced. Each of the policemen related that, while defendant had admitted the shooting, he had testified that the victim was carrying a gun and that he believed he was in danger for his life at the time he fired the fatal shot. The court considered it “most serious and prejudicial error” that the court gave to the jury an instruction regarding confessions on the basis of these statements. (300 Ill. 471, 476.) The court said: “Neither the statement as testified to by the policemen nor as written down and signed by the defendant amounted to a confession, which is a voluntary declaration by a person charged with crime of Ins agency or participation in the crime, and not merely a declaration or admission of facts criminating in their nature or tending to show guilt. It is limited in its meaning to the commission of a criminal act and is an acknowledgment or admission of participation in it.” (300 Ill. 470, 476.) Thus, a statement which admits all the physical incidents of a crime, but contains material that is exculpatory (as was the claim of self-defense in Stapleton), is not a confession. A confession must be an acknowledgment of a criminal act. In People v. Stanton, 16 Ill.2d 459, 158 N.E.2d 47, defendant was apprehended near the scene of a burglary and searched. The deputy found 54 cents in defendant’s pocket and asked him where he got the money. Defendant replied, “Out of the register.” Though- this statement was not turned over to the defense on discovery, it was admitted.into evidence. 'When defense obj'ected on appeal that this statement was a confession which, according to the terms of the Criminal Code, was required to be furnished to the defense in advance of trial, the supreme court said: “A confession is a voluntary acknowledgment of guilt after the perpetration of an offense, and it does not embrace mere statements or declarations of independent facts from which guilt may be inferred, while an admission is any statement or conduct from which guilt of the crime may be inferred but from which guilt does not necessarily follow. [Citations.] # # # In the instant case, burglary was the only charge upon which the defendants were tried. The essence of the crime of burglary is breaking and entering with felonious intent. The statements attributed to Corbin did not amount to an ultimate confession of guilt because they did not necessarily establish that the defendants broke into arid entered the clubhouse.” (16 Ill.2d 459, 466, 467, 158 N.E.2d 47, 51.) Thus, it can be seen that even a statement which admits facts which are virtually tantamount to guilt is not a confession unless it includes all the elements necessary to guilt. That same principle is expressed in People v. Allen, 413 Ill. 69, 107 N.E.2d 826, where defendant’s statements in regard to the crime of child molesting were found by the court to constitute a confession. There the court said: “A confession has been defined as a ‘direct acknowledgment of guilt on the part of the accused, either by a statement of the details of the crime, or an admission of the ultimate fact.’ [Citation.] In the alleged confession, defendant stated in writing that ‘She was going to show it to me for some money. She pulled her panties down, pulled them plum off. I played with her a little bit. Had hold of her arm. She said if I wasn’t going to give her any money she was going home. She jerked loose and started home.’ The unmistakable meaning of the statement, viewed in its entirety rather than as isolated phrases, as defendant suggests to this court, constitutes an admission of the ultimate fact of taking indecent liberties with a minor under the statute * * (Emphasis added.) 413 Ill. 69, 77-78, 107 N.E.2d 826, 830-31. Hie principle that a confession must include all the elements of the crime is set out in even more specific language in People v. Georgeo, 38 Ill.2d 165, 230 N.E.2d 851, where defendant made two very incriminating statements after his arrest. When asked to give a statement, he refused and added, “[T]he stuff was found in my possession — what more do you want?” He later told the custodian of the jail that “he [the defendant] knew he was going to prison and it was just one of those things, he was broke and needed the money and got caught at it.” In ruling that the State had no obligation to surrender copies of these statements to the defense on discovery, the court said: “Confessions must be distinguished from admissions against interest. Jones on Evidence, 5th Ed., sec. 398 states: ‘s * * As the terminology is used in criminal law a “confession” must be distinguished from an “admission” of lesser import * * *. A confession out of court or an extra-judicial confession is comprehensive in its scope, * * * in that it acknoioledges all of the elements of the crime and therefore is a confession of guilt * a A verbal (that is, expressed in words, oral or written) admission in criminal law, as generally understood, is different from a confession in-that it is not an aclcnowledgment of guilt but is a statement having evidentiary value in proof of an element of the offense charged.’” (Emphasis added.) 38 Ill.2d 165, 175, 230 N.E.2d 851, 857. This court has twice expressed the same principle in recent years. In People v. Rollins, 119 Ill.App.2d 116, 131, 255 N.E.2d 471, 478, the court said: "A confession is a comprehensive admission of guilt or of facts which necessarily and directly imply guilt.” In People v. Koch, 15 Ill.App.3d 386, 389, 304 N.E.2d 482, 484, this court said: “A confession is a voluntary acknowledgment of guilt which is comprehensive in scope and includes all the elements of a crime, whereas an oral or written admission is not an acknowledgment of guilt, but is simply a statement of independent facts from which guilt may or may not be inferred.” (Emphasis added.) The question in the instant case is whether Dennis Ellis’ statement, as set out in the majority opinion, “is comprehensive in scope and includes all the elements of a crime.” If not, the giving of a confession instruction on the basis of this statement was error. It is obvious on its face that the statement does not include the elements necessary to establish that the defendant was a principal to this burglary. There is no indication whatsoever of entering any building or other structure with intent to commit a felony or theft. Defendant, however, was being tried under the principles of accountability set out in section 5 — 2 of the Criminal Code (Ill. Rev, Stat. 1971, ch. 38, par. 5 — 2), so that the question becomes whether his statement contains all the elements necessary to show that the burglary was committed in such a fashion as to make Ellis legally accountable for the conduct of the one committing the burglary. As this court said in Rollins, a confession need not be couched in the terms of the statutes on accountability or burglary. (119 IIl.App.2d 131, 132.) Tlrus, it is not significant that Ellis did not say his friend entered the building “without authority” and “with intent to commit therein a felony or theft.” On the other hand, it is significant that defendant’s statement contains nothing to indicate that defendant had “the intent to promote or facilitate” the commission of the burglary, because that mental state is specifically required by the statute governing accountability. Defendant admitted telling his friend, Gary Clay, that the office building burglarized in this case was “an easy hit.” That alone cannot be said to reveal “intent to promote or facilitate” a burglary of the named address. According to the statement, when defendant was specifically asked to assist with the burglar)' of that building, he declined. Obviously, that portion of his statement cannot constitute a confession — rather, it is exculpatory. The only other indication of involvement contained in his statement is an admission that he walked over to the building where the burglary was going on and stood outside. There was no indication that he signaled to the man inside, or that he served as an assistant to the man inside in 7 ' any way. He stated that “[i]f standing by the back door while Clay was inside was considered a look-out, then this is what he was” (emphasis added), but since merely standing outside a building while someone is inside committing a burglary is not the same as serving as a lookout, that portion of his statement cannot constitute a confession. Whether taken sentence by sentence or viewed as a whole, defendant’s statement is exculpatory, not an acknowledgment of guilt. It is incriminating in the sense that it admits conversations with Gary Clay, proximity to the events, and facts which might lead a jury to believe that defendant was in fact serving as a lookout, even though he denied any cooperation with Gary Clay. That is, the statement was properly in evidence as an admission against interest because it conceded many incriminating facts which might logically lead to a finding of guilt despite defendant’s protestations to the contrary. It was not, however, a confession under the standards set up by tire Illinois Supreme Court and followed by this court, because it did not contain an admission of the mental state required before a party can be held accountable for the criminal conduct of another, nor did it admit actions which necessarily implied that mental state. To instruct the jury on confessions where the only statements to which that instruction could possibly refer were but admissions is serious and prejudicial error. (People v. Sovetsky, 323 Ill. 133, 153 N.E. 615; Staple-ton. ) The case against defendant herein was dependent in large part on the jury’s interpretation of his own statement about the events of July 1, 1973, and the instruction characterizing that statement as a confession could not help but prejudice his defense. (People v. Sowell, 56 Ill.App.2d 110, 205 N.E.2d 487.) I would reverse and remand on grounds of the erroneous and prejudicial instruction on confessions.