People v. Jones

• Citation: 778 N.Y.S.2d 133,810 N.E.2d 415,2 N.Y.3d 235
• Parties: THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. COREY JONES, Appellant.
• Decision Date: 06 April 2004
• Court: New York Court of Appeals

2 N.Y.3d 235

810 N.E.2d 415

778 N.Y.S.2d 133

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. COREY JONES, Appellant.

Court of Appeals of the State of New York.

Argued February 19, 2004.

Decided April 6, 2004.

Legal Aid Society, New York City (Kerry Elgarten and Laura R. Johnson of counsel), for appellant.

Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn (Scott J. Splittgerber and Leonard Joblove of counsel), for respondent.

Judges G.B. Smith, Rosenblatt, Read and R.S. Smith concur with Judge Graffeo; Judge Ciparick dissents and votes to reverse in a separate opinion in which Chief Judge Kaye concurs.

OPINION OF THE COURT

GRAFFEO, J.

The issue in this appeal is whether the State Constitution prohibits the introduction in evidence of eyewitness lineup identifications, where the lineup was conducted after police arrested defendant at his residence without a warrant or consent to enter, in violation of Payton v New York (445 US 573 [1980]; see People v Levan, 62 NY2d 139 [1984]

). Under the circumstances of this case, we conclude that the exclusionary rule does not require the suppression of the identification evidence.

In October 1998, a woman was accosted in her apartment building by a man who followed her onto an elevator. The man confronted her, stated that he had just been in a shootout and asked for money so he could flee from the area. When the woman refused, the man tore a chain from her neck, took her watch and put his hand in her pocket. The assailant fled after the woman began spraying him with Mace.

Another woman was robbed under similar circumstances later that month. While she and her children were entering an elevator in their apartment building, a man approached her, claimed that he had been in a shootout and shot someone, and declared that he "needed cab fare to get away." After the woman told him that she couldn't help him, the man reached under his jacket and apologized to her, stating "I wouldn't do this, if I didn't have to, but I'm desperate." Although the woman initially refused to give him anything, she eventually handed over $30. When the man tried to reach into her pocket, the woman slapped his hand away. Placing his hand on the shoulder of her child, the man told the woman not to make him do "nothing [he didn't] want to do." He then ripped a necklace from the woman and demanded her earrings. She gave him one but tossed the other onto the floor of the elevator. The man picked up the earring and fled from the elevator.

Eventually the victim of the second robbery met with a detective who arranged for her to view computerized mug shot photographs. She examined six photographs at a time for approximately 20 minutes, but did not find anyone who resembled the man that robbed her. The detective then produced three additional photographs that he printed from the computer. The woman identified one of the men—defendant—as her assailant. Based on that identification, defendant's photograph was inserted into a six-person photographic array that was shown to the victim of the first robbery. She also identified defendant as the man who accosted her.

Having probable cause to believe that defendant was the perpetrator of both robberies, but without obtaining an arrest warrant, the detective and several police officers went to the apartment where defendant lived with his mother. When defendant's mother answered the door, the detective told her that he was looking for her son. She left the front door open as she went back into the apartment to find defendant. The police officers followed her inside, located defendant and placed him under arrest. Approximately five hours later, police placed defendant in a lineup and the two robbery victims separately identified him.

Defendant was subsequently indicted for a variety of crimes stemming from the two incidents, including two counts of robbery in the first degree. He moved to suppress identification evidence at trial, claiming that the photographic identification procedure employed with the second victim was unduly suggestive. Defendant also argued that because the police entered his home without consent or an arrest warrant in violation of Payton v New York (445 US 573 [1980]), the lineup identifications should be suppressed as the tainted product of the illegal entry.

Supreme Court denied the motion to suppress identification evidence, initially determining that the photographic identification procedure was not unduly suggestive. The court further ruled that, although the police had violated the Payton rule when they entered defendant's home and arrested him in the absence of consent or a warrant, the lineup identifications did not stem from the Payton violation and, as such, suppression was not warranted. Supreme Court adhered to its decision upon reargument.

After the presentation of evidence at trial, including the victims' in-court identifications of defendant and testimony concerning the lineup identifications,¹ defendant was convicted of one count of robbery in the first degree relating to the second incident. The jury, however, was unable to render a unanimous verdict on the charges related to the first robbery. The Appellate Division affirmed defendant's conviction and a Judge of this Court granted leave to appeal.

As a threshold matter, it is undisputed that the arrest of defendant in his home, although supported by probable cause due to the victims' photographic identifications, was effectuated unlawfully. The Fourth Amendment clearly "prohibits the police from making a warrantless and nonconsensual entry into a suspect's home in order to make a routine felony arrest" (Payton v New York, 445 US at 576) in the absence of "exigent circumstances" (Kirk v Louisiana, 536 US 635, 638 [2002]). Here, the People never argued that an emergency justified the warrantless entry and Supreme Court expressly found that defendant's mother did not provide consent before the police entered the residence. Because the People do not challenge Supreme Court's undisturbed findings of fact, we accept that a Payton violation occurred.²

The primary question before us is whether the exclusionary rule bars the People's use of lineup identifications conducted in the absence of counsel subsequent to an arrest made in violation of the Payton doctrine. In People v Harris (77 NY2d 434 [1991]), we held that the Search and Seizure Clause of the State Constitution generally requires the suppression of incriminating statements elicited during a custodial interrogation conducted without counsel following a Payton violation. We are now asked to determine whether the rationale of Harris carries equal strength in post-Payton lineup identification situations.³

The resolution of this issue requires an examination of the factual and procedural context of Harris in our Court, both before and after the United States Supreme Court reviewed the case. In our initial decision, we concluded that the Federal Constitution required suppression of "any verbal statements obtained as a direct result of an unlawful invasion" unless the statements were attenuated from the Payton violation (People v Harris, 72 NY2d 614, 619 [1988]). The Supreme Court, however, ruled that suppression was unwarranted and reversed (New York v Harris, 495 US 14, 21 [1990]). The Court explained that the exclusionary rule was inapplicable "because the rule in Payton was designed to protect the physical integrity of the home; it was not intended to grant criminal suspects . . . protection for statements made outside their premises where the police have probable cause to arrest" (id. at 17). Thus, under the Fourth Amendment of the Federal Constitution, evidence procured after the police leave an arrestee's residence is not considered to be "the product of" a Payton violation (id. at 19).

On remand, we considered whether suppression was necessary under article I, § 12 of the State Constitution—the provision prohibiting unlawful searches and seizures. We determined that the "State Constitution requires that statements obtained from an accused following a Payton violation must be suppressed unless the taint resulting from the violation has been attenuated" (77 NY2d at 437). The justification for a more protective rule was rooted in the unique protections guaranteed by New York's Right to Counsel Clause, which is "`far more expansive than the Federal counterpart'" (id. at 439, quoting People v Bing, 76 NY2d 331, 339 [1990]).⁴ We noted that "[u]nder both Federal and State law, the right to counsel attaches once criminal proceedings have commenced" and, of particular relevance, in New York "criminal proceedings must be instituted before the police can obtain a warrant" because CPL 120.20 requires an accusatory instrument to be filed before an arrest warrant may be issued (People v Harris, 77 NY2d at 439

, 440). In this state, therefore, the indelible right to counsel attaches whenever an arrest warrant is issued and the "police may not question a suspect in the absence of an attorney" (id. at 440). Due to this prohibition on interrogation without counsel that arises when a defendant is arrested under the authority of a warrant, we recognized that police in our state may have an incentive "to violate Payton . . . because doing so enables them to circumvent the accused's indelible right to counsel" (id.). Thus, we held that the exclusionary rule applies to statements elicited after a Payton violation in order to deter law enforcement from violating one constitutional protection (unreasonably entering and seizing an accused in the home) for the purpose of circumventing another (the indelible right to counsel).

Here, as in Harris, we are again confronted with the "interplay between the right to counsel rules established by New York law and the State's search and seizure" protections (id.). Relying on Harris, defendant argues that suppression of the lineup evidence is necessary to remove any incentive the police have...