Court Opinion

ID: 9701084
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:03:47.718823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:19.075073
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Chief Jumes Bell:
On April 28, 1966, the body of Pamela Sue Rimer was found in a wooded area not far from her home. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was shock, loss of blood and suffocation due to the presence of blood in the lungs. An examination revealed numerous wounds around the deceased’s head and neck.
Early in the morning of the following day the defendant Yount, a teacher at the high school attended by the deceased, appeared at the State Police Barracks several miles away and stated to the officer in charge, “I think I am the man you are looking for.” At trial, the defendant testified that the officer “looked at me as if he didn’t believe me. ... I told him I thought I must have been the man killed [sic] this girl and he said ‘Well, why do you think you killed her?’ and I told him I wasn’t sure. . . . He said ‘How did you kill her?’ or ‘Why do you think you did it?’ and I said ‘I killed her with a wrench’ ”. Within an hour or so he wrote a confession to the crime in his own handwriting.
The Majority admit that the aforesaid confession would have been held to be voluntary and admissible if made prior to Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478; Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436; Davis v. North Carolina, 384 U.S. 737. However, they would reverse the defendant’s conviction because no Miranda warnings were given prior to this, the first of two confessions that the defendant made. But by its own language Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S., supra, is expressly inapplicable to a situation such as the present one where *283a defendant voluntarily walks into a police station and makes a confession.
In Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S., supra, the Court pertinently said (page 478) : “Any statement given freely and voluntarily without any compelling influences is, of course, admissible in evidence. . . . There is no requirement that police stop a person who enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess to a crime, or a person who calls the police to offer a confession or any other statement he desires to make. Volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the Fifth Amendment and their admissibility is not affected by our holding today.” It is difficult to imagine a case which would more closely fit this language than the one now before us. Once more I vigorously protest the extension of Miranda by a majority of this Court and the practical elimination of the desperately needed protection of countless millions of peaceful, law-abiding citizens.
The Majority states that the Miranda warnings were necessary merely because the defendant was asked by the officer in charge about the details of the crime and such questioning was likely to elicit a confession. Commonwealth v. Simala, 434 Pa. 219, 252 A. 2d 575 does not support the proposition that questioning alone will trigger the necessity for Miranda warnings. Furthermore, Simula, on its facts, is clearly distinguishable from the present case. In Simóla, the defendant was taken into custody for violation of his parole by carrying a gun. While detained at the office of the town mayor the defendant was asked by the mayor if he wanted to talk, whereupon the defendant orally confessed to shooting the deceased. That confession was held to be inadmissible because the Miranda warnings had not been given prior to defendant’s oral confession. What distinguishes Símala from the present case is *284that Símala was “in custody” at the time he was questioned. The holding in Miranda, clearly makes “custody” one of the factors which require the warnings to be given: “. . . when an individual is taken into custody* or otherwise deprived of his freedom* by the authorities in any significant way and* is subjected to questioning, the privilege against self-incrimination is jeopardized.” Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S., supra (page 478). In the instant case, the defendant Yount was certainly not under arrest nor in custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom.
In Commonwealth ex rel. Corbin v. Myers, 423 Pa. 243, 245-246, 223 A. 2d 738, the Court said that . . the issue of determining voluntariness depends largely upon the facts of the particular case, i.e., the total combination of circumstances (Reck v. Pate, 367 U.S. 433; Commonwealth v. Brown, 309 Pa. 515, 164 A. 726).” The total combination of circumstances in this case clearly shows (1) that the defendant Yount made his first confession voluntarily, and (2) that no Miranda warnings were necessary, and (3) that his confession was properly admissible.

 Italics, ours.