Court Opinion

ID: 9552497
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:12:05.07556+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:27:37.808003
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING SUTIN, Judge. The State’s Motion for Rehearing is granted to determine whether State v. Helker, 88 N.M. 650, 545 P.2d 1028 (Ct.App.1975), Sutin, J., dissenting, conflicts with the opinion rendered. We hold that it does not. The State argued that absent the filing of a pre-adjudicatory motion to suppress, a motion to suppress made during trial is untimely. We held that “A pre-adjudicatory motion must be filed within the time allowed if a respondent wants a hearing on the motion before commencement of trial. . John Doe’s failure to file a preadjudicatory motion to suppress the evidence did not deny him the right to object to the admission of the evidence at trial.” The State now claims Helker holds that a trial motion to suppress is untimely. In Helker, during trial, the State offered defendant’s confession in evidence. Defendant requested that a hearing be held out of the presence of the jury to determine whether the confession was voluntary. The court excused the jury and held a hearing, limited only to testimony of State’s witnesses. Defendant then moved to examine other witnesses to determine whether the confession was voluntary, and the motion was denied as untimely. Apparently, the trial court viewed defendant’s motion as a motion to suppress rather than one to determine the admissibility in evidence of defendant’s confession. In the appeal, defendant contended that the time limit set in Rule 18(c) of the Rules of Criminal Procedure to file a motion to suppress cannot deprive defendant of his constitutionally protected right to a trial hearing. Helker disagreed based upon quotations from federal cases that interpreted prior Rule 41(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure [18 U.S.C.A. rule 41(e) (1961)]. What was not disclosed is the fact that Rule 41(e) did not set a time limitation on defendant’s right to a trial hearing. Defendant had the right to move for suppression of evidence at trial. Whether the motion would be granted was placed in the discretion of the trial court. In Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697, 704 (1960), following the Helker quotation, Justice Frankfurter said: * * * As codified, the rule is not a rigid one, for under Rule 41(e) “the court in its discretion may entertain the motion [to suppress] at the trial or hearing.” This qualification proves that we are dealing with carrying out an important social policy and not a narrow, finicky procedural requirement. This underlying policy likewise precludes application of the Rule so as to compel the injustice of an internally inconsistent conviction. * * [Emphasis added.] Although orderly procedure requires the motion to be made earlier, the court in its discretion may entertain a motion at the trial stage. That discretion should be liberally exercised in the furtherance of justice. Gallegos v. United States, 237 F.2d 694 (10th Cir. 1956). In other words, the failure of defendant to file a motion to suppress prior to trial did not foreclose defendant’s right to object to the admission of evidence during the trial. Glisson v. United States, 406 F.2d 423 (5th Cir. 1969). Rule 41(e) did not posit a rigid and absolute requirement that a motion to suppress be presented in limine. Small v. United States, 396 F.2d 764 (5th Cir. 1968). It is not fatal. United States v. Wylie, 149 U.S.App.D.C. 283, 462 F.2d 1178 (1972). In Helker, the trial court did not deny defendant’s request. It exercised its discretion and granted defendant a hearing. Instead of receiving defendant’s evidence upon whom the burden rested, the court received only the testimony of the State’s witnesses. The injustice of this internal inconsistent conviction establishes that Helker carried out a “finicky procedural requirement.” The conclusion of Helker, “that rules of criminal procedure can put a time limitation” on defendant’s protected rights, did not state that the absence of a pre-trial motion to suppress foreclosed defendant’s right to pursue this motion for the first time in an appeal. The purpose of suppression rules is to require an orderly procedure before trial, not a denial of constitutionally protected rights.  We must emphasize once again that defendant’s duty to move for suppression of evidence before trial is discretionary. Rule 18(b) reads': A person aggrieved by a confession * * * may move to suppress such evidence. [Emphasis added.] If a person desires to have a pre-trial hearing, then “A motion to suppress shall be made within twenty days * * Rule 18(c). It does not require the citation of innumerable authorities that “The word may usually is employed to imply permissive or discretional, and not mandatory, action or conduct. 57 C.J.S. May p. 456.” Shea v. Shea, 537 P.2d 417, 418 (Okla.1975). If the Supreme Court in the adoption of the Rules of Criminal Procedure had established Rule 18(b) to be mandatory and to limit defendant’s rights to pre-trial procedure, it would have done so. Rule 12(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure on Pre-Trial Motions reads in pertinent part: * * * The following must be raised prior to trial: * * * * * * (3) Motions to suppress evidence. [Emphasis added.] We hold that Helker is not in conflict with the opinion in the instant case. HERNANDEZ, J. specially concurring. LOPEZ, J., concurs.