Court Opinion

ID: 9739087
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:08:36.638946+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:09.945774
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. The pattern of voting in this dissent now advanced is exemplified by the rationale and authorities in State v. Hoenscheid, 374 N.W.2d 128, 132-3 (S.D.1985) (Henderson, J., concurring in part, dissenting in part), and State v. Neville (Neville II), 346 N.W.2d 425, 432-3 (S.D.1984) (Henderson, J., concurring in part, dissenting in part). In Oregon v. Hass, 420 U.S. 714, 95 S.Ct. 1215, 43 L.Ed.2d 570 (1975), the United States Supreme Court observed that each state may grant greater protection under its own constitution than is provided by the federal constitution. See, also, State v. Opperman (Opperman II), 247 N.W.2d 673 (S.D.1976) (search and seizure).* Here, such additional protection is mandated by the language of South Dakota Constitution, Art. VI, § 9, which provides, in pertinent part: “No person'shall be compelled in any criminal case to give evidence against himself This wording is substantively different than its federal counterpart, the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects against compulsion of a person “to be a witness against himself.” Even under the narrower wording of the federal constitution, an underlying principle in the enforcement of our criminal law is that ours is an accusatorial, not an inquisitorial, system. Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U.S. 534, 541, 81 S.Ct. 735, 739, 5 L.Ed.2d 760, 766 (1961). Here, our state highways are being converted into fields of inquisitorial activity.
The majority opinion asserts, at p. 50, relying on State v. Roadifer, 346 N.W.2d 438 (S.D.1984), that oral field sobriety tests and audio tapes thereof are admissible. This is incorrect, Roadifer notwithstanding. Field sobriety tests involving recitation of the alphabet while .one is under suspicion for intoxication yields evidence which is “essentially communicative in nature” Commonwealth v. Thompson, 377 Pa.Super. 598, 605, 547 A.2d 1223, 1227 (1988) (quoting Commonwealth v. Bruder, 365 Pa.Super. 106, 528 A.2d 1385, 1388 (1987). Similarly, the audio portion of a videotape of a defendant’s field sobriety test is to be suppressed on Fifth Amendment grounds. See, Commonwealth v. Conway, 368 Pa.Super. 488, 534 A.2d 541 (1987). Interestingly, Pennsylvania’s state constitution’s self-incrimination provision tracks the wording of the federal constitution, not South Dakota’s broader protection. Under this State’s constitution, evidence provided by the defendant is the focus, not function as a witness, which is all the more reason to suppress the evidence at hand.
Further, Meek was cajoled into taking the tests, an indication that his efforts were involuntary; note the majority opinion wherein police officer is quoted saying that it would be to Meek’s “advantage to try to do some tests ... ”, in other words, to incriminate himself. See, Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The purpose of the officer’s actions, here, were to elicit incriminating responses, i.e., to gather incriminating evidence. Meek was, consequently, under the functional equivalent of interrogation, as defined in Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980).
The circumstances of this case warranted suppression. The majority’s reversal of the trial court is but one more in a series of cases which have chipped away constitutional protections for South Dakotans.
Erosions of liberty do not come in giant leaps, they come in miniscule encroachments often hidden to the trained and educated mind. Like a thief in the night, language can steal a liberty deeply in*52grained in the fabric of the American way of life. I am afraid of each little encroachment on the liberty of my fellow Americans on the highway.
State v. Anderson, 331 N.W.2d 568, 573 (S.D.1983) (Henderson, J., concurring in result). Here, the long-standing right against self-incrimination is being gradually eroded.

 Opperman II was modified, on other grounds, in State v. Flittie, 425 N.W.2d 1 (S.D.1988).