Court Opinion

ID: 9884734
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:10:09.312047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:40.439497
License: Public Domain

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE UNDERWOOD, dissenting: I cannot agree with the court’s automatic application of the material witness rule to reverse this conviction. That rule provides that, when the voluntariness of a confession is questioned, the State must produce all material witnesses thereto or explain their absence. The absence of Officer Lenz was explained by the fact that he was on vacation and could not be reached. That explanation is, to me, sufficient in view of the further fact that it is nowhere contended that Officer Lenz in any way intimidated or coerced the defendant. In my opinion we may properly notice the fact that the scheduling of vacations for members of metropolitan police forces is sufficiently complex that it would be virtually impossible, or at least highly impractical, to have every police officer connected with a case constantly available during the entire period in which that case is either set for or on trial. We know from the records in the appeals to this court that substantial delays frequently occur between complaint and trial (approximately one year here), that cases are repeatedly continued after the initial trial setting, and that such continuances frequently occur on very short notice or with no advance notice at all. Those records also disclose that claims of police brutality, coercion and intimidation are routinely made by defendants in those cases in which confessions or admissions exist. That is not to say that such claims should be routinely dismissed, but it is to say that a rule which automatically reverses a conviction whenever a police officer, as to whom no claim of participation in coercive activity is made, is unavailable at trial is both an unnecessary and an undesirable rule. The policy evidenced by the rule is, in my judgment, acceptable if treated simply as a general guideline to be applied in those situations where some reason is shown to exist warranting the belief that the testimony of the absent witness would be of substantial value in resolving the question of voluntariness. Such is not true here, and I cannot subscribe to what I consider to be, particularly as to Officer Lenz, an unwarranted application of a rule which seems to have become largely mechanical in its operation.