Court Opinion

ID: 9711455
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:32:16.464797+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:05.174055
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
Although I agree with the results of this opinion, I find it difficult to accept the ultimate conclusion on subparagraph (4) in the penultimate paragraph of this decision but I agree with the first aspect of subpar-agraph (4), namely that Satter’s April 11, 1973, statements are involuntary and inad*771missible. However, some 17 years later, as I view it, this Court would now permit the State to fulfill its promise and give Satter a promised polygraph examination. The polygraph examination, after the promises were made by the State, seems untimely and could not possibly eradicate the damaging admissions. The evidence is simply too stale; resurrecting the taking of a polygraph exam now (which was not taken before as agreed) casts a shadow on the rendition of timely justice. In my opinion, it is too late and would not cure the involuntary statement of Satter on April 11. As Justice Morgan points out, the April 12 statement only corrected typographical errors. In reading cases in other appellate courts, I note that the phrase “cat out of the bag” is used and these courts rationalize that once the “cat is out of the bag” that these damaging, involuntary and inadmissible statements cannot be rehabilitated by trying to put the “cat back into the bag.” This is a classic example, as depicted by subparagraph (4), of 17 years later attempting to put the “cat back into the bag.” Surely, Satter would not have made his April 11 and 12, 1973, statements, had he not made the April 2 and 5, 1973, statements. South Dakota still has ample evidence to proceed with a prosecution and the elimination of (4) in the majority opinion would not unduly restrict South Dakota from prosecution.
Lastly, I am opposed to having the polygraph test results admitted, if the State elects to give it under the writing of Justice Morgan, for the reason that this Court has consistently refused to permit polygraph tests to be admitted into evidence in this state. State v. O’Connor, 86 S.D. 294, 194 N.W.2d 246 (1972); State v. Watson, 248 N.W.2d 398 (S.D.1976); State v. Muetze, 368 N.W.2d 575 (S.D.1975); State v. Waff, 373 N.W.2d 18 (S.D.1985).
If either the position of the majority court on subparagraph (4) leaves a doubt in the trial judge’s mind as to implementing said subparagraph (4); and if this writing and the precedent set forth herein create a further conceptual enigma, the State made a promise that a polygraph examination would be given to Satter. Satter was not given the polygraph test he was promised. The writing of Justice Morgan suggests that this was trickery. There is no doubt that the promise of the polygraph examination and permitting it to go into evidence was an inducement to have Satter incriminate himself. I do not think that Satter and/or the State can agree, by an understanding between them, that polygraph examination results would be admissible in a court of law in this state. To permit this would, in my opinion, violate stare decisis. Taking the polygraph examination is one act; it is a physical and electronic scenario. Introducing the results thereof is a different matter, encompassing a legal, judicial and evidentiary ruling in a courtroom.