Johnson v. Hall

• Decision Date: 31 January 1979
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 76-2869-T.
• Citation: 465 F. Supp. 516
• Parties: Ronald L. JOHNSON, Petitioner, v. Frank A. HALL et al., Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

465 F. Supp. 516

Ronald L. JOHNSON, Petitioner, v. Frank A. HALL et al., Respondents.

Civ. A. No. 76-2869-T.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

January 31, 1979.

Edward Berkin, Dorchester, Mass., for petitioner.

John P. Corbett, Asst. Atty. Gen., Barbara A. H. Smith, Boston, Mass., for respondents.

OPINION

TAURO, District Judge.

Petitioner seeks a writ of habeas corpus,¹ challenging his 1964 conviction in the Massachusetts Superior Court of a number of charges, including murder in the first degree of a Boston policeman.² At trial, petitioner's confession was admitted in evidence. The admission of that confession underlies the instant petition.

I.

The confession at issue was obtained from petitioner in the early morning hours following his arrest. Petitioner objected to its admission on the sole ground that the confession was extracted from him after he had been physically mistreated by the police. Following a voir dire, the trial judge rejected petitioner's version of the events leading up to the confession and found the statement voluntary.³ The confession was introduced into evidence before the jury. Defense counsel again objected, on the same grounds as those voiced during the voir dire.

At the close of the Commonwealth's case, petitioner chose to rest without presenting evidence. The jury convicted. Defendant is serving a life sentence.

On October 1, 1964, petitioner filed a motion for a new trial based on the principles enunciated in Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964), a case decided subsequent to his conviction. In support of his motion for a new trial, petitioner asserted for the first time that his request for counsel during interrogation had been refused by the police. After hearing, the trial court rejected petitioner's assertions, distinguishing his case from Escobedo on the ground that petitioner had neither requested nor been denied the opportunity to consult with counsel.

Petitioner then appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court, assigning as error the admission in evidence of his confession. After that court affirmed his conviction,⁴ petitioner sought certiorari from the Supreme Court. The Court granted the petition on October 9, 1967, but later dismissed the writ as improvidently granted, concluding that the record relevant to the constitutional claims was insufficient to permit determination of those issues. Johnson v. Massachusetts, 390 U.S. 511, 88 S.Ct. 1155, 20 L.Ed.2d 69 (1968).⁵

Petitioner now seeks habeas corpus relief on three grounds. First, he maintains that the state trial court deprived him of due process by failing to consider "the totality of the circumstances" surrounding his confession. Second, he contends that his confession was involuntary as a matter of law. Finally, he argues that the state trial court and appeals court committed constitutional error by placing the burden of proof upon him to prove the involuntariness of his confession.

II.

The facts, brought out at the trial and the evidentiary hearing on petitioner's motion for a new trial, are as follows: In August 1963, petitioner held up a liquor store with a revolver. When chased by a police officer to a waiting get-away car, he shot and killed the officer and drove away. A subsequent car chase ended when petitioner's vehicle struck a wall, ricocheted into traffic hitting several cars and finally came to a halt after crashing into a bus. The front of petitioner's car was demolished and he was seen limping away from the scene of the accident. He was eventually apprehended at 9:30 p. m. and brought to the police stationhouse where he was booked and placed in a cell. Sometime after 10 p. m. he was taken to police headquarters.

Between midnight and 4:00 a. m. petitioner appeared in four police lineups. He was also interrogated by three police officers, in the presence of a police stenographer, for approximately forty minutes after the lineups. At 5:50 a. m. he confessed.

There was testimony at trial that petitioner was injured during the lineups and the interrogation. Several witnesses who observed him in the lineups testified that he was bleeding on or around the head and that he may have had cuts on other parts of his body. There was considerable dispute as to when and how petitioner was injured. Petitioner maintained that he was beaten by police officers.

Two weeks after the incident, petitioner was examined by a physician who found that he may have been suffering from a hematoma at the time he gave his statement to the police. The trial judge did not permit the doctor to testify at the voir dire as to the possible cause of the head injury. Despite a suggestion from the court to do so, no evidence was brought out concerning the possible effect of that injury on the petitioner at the time of his confession.

In his "Findings, Rulings and Order" on petitioner's request for a new trial, the trial judge found unbelievable petitioner's statement at trial that he had not been injured in the car crash before his arrest. He also rejected petitioner's contention that he had been physically mistreated by the police and found that petitioner had been belligerent, offensive and uncooperative during the booking process. With respect to petitioner's Escobedo claim, the trial judge found that the police had not informed petitioner that he had the right to remain silent, and further found that petitioner had not knowingly waived his right to remain silent. On the other hand, the judge found that despite the petitioner's below average intelligence quota (86) and his multiple injuries, he had been sufficiently lucid to ask questions challenging the accuracy and credibility of the identifications made by some of the witnesses at the lineups.

III.

Relying upon Procunier v. Atchley, 400 U.S. 446, 91 S.Ct. 485, 27 L.Ed.2d 524 (1971), petitioner contends that the Massachusetts state courts violated his right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment by failing to consider "the totality of the circumstances" surrounding his confession. Specifically, he argues that the trial court's inquiries at both the voir dire and the motion for a new trial were limited to whether petitioner's confession was either (1) a product of physical coercion, or (2) in violation of petitioner's right to counsel.

In Procunier, the Supreme Court held that an applicant for federal habeas relief is not entitled to a new hearing on the voluntariness of a confession introduced at trial merely because of shortcomings in the state court procedure used to decide the voluntariness issue. Rather, he must show that, even apart from inadequacies in the state court procedures, his version of the events would require the conclusion that his statement was involuntary. 400 U.S. at 451, 91 S.Ct. 485.

In the course of its decision, the Court noted the appropriate constitutional test for determining the admissibility of a pre-Escobedo and pre-Miranda confession: "The question was whether the will of the defendant had been overborne so that the statement was not his free and voluntary act, and that question was to be resolved in light of the totality of the circumstances." 400 U.S. at 453, 91 S.Ct. at 489.

Assuming, without deciding, that Procunier required that the voluntariness of petitioner's confession be determined on the totality of the circumstances,⁶ the record demonstrates that the trial court judge did consider "the totality of the circumstances" in determining that petitioner's confession was voluntary.⁷

Prior to or during the voir dire, there was evidence of petitioner's age, occupation, I.Q., and physical condition at the time of his custody. The trial judge invited testimony as to whether petitioner's injuries affected his capacity to understand and withstand custodial interrogation. No such evidence was offered, however. In addition, the trial judge had an opportunity to assess petitioner's intelligence and capacity during his voir dire testimony in support of his claim of physical coercion.

In connection with petitioner's motion for a new trial, evidence was presented to the trial judge showing petitioner's prior experience with the police; the failure of the police to advise petitioner of his right to remain silent; petitioner's character and temperament, particularly his belligerent and defiant attitude toward the police; petitioner's questioning of identifying witnesses at the lineups; and petitioner's food intake during his night of custody.

Moreover, the trial court's "Findings, Rulings and Order" on petitioner's motion for a new trial reflect a careful consideration of the total circumstances in reaching the conclusion that petitioner's confession was given voluntarily. The trial judge noted therein that, on the basis of the evidence presented during voir dire, he had been satisfied "by the fair weight of the evidence" that the defendant had made his statement voluntarily. Thus, in his first non-extemporaneous finding since the beginning of the proceedings, the trial judge refused to hinge his finding of voluntariness at the voir dire solely on the absence of physical coercion. Rather, his finding was articulated in broad terms, referenced to "the fair weight of the evidence."

This court, therefore, finds no merit to petitioner's claim that the trial judge failed to consider "the totality of the circumstances" surrounding petitioner's statement to the police. The extemporaneous remarks of the judge made at the close of the voir dire⁸ were limited, and were directed to petitioner's then prime contention of physical coercion by the police. Although the trial judge did not use the catch phrase "totality of the circumstances" in his memorandum, it is clear from its contents that he employed the "totality" concept in arriving at his determination of voluntariness.

IV.

Petitioner next contends that his confession was involuntary as a matter of law—that his will was so overborne that...