People v. Robinson
| Decision Date | 12 December 1968 |
| Citation | 297 N.Y.S.2d 82,31 A.D.2d 724 |
| Parties | PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Willie James ROBINSON, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Harold J. Boreanaz and John G. Putnam, Jr., Harold J. Boreanaz, Buffalo, co-assigned counsel, for appellant.
Michael F. Dillon, Buffalo, L. G. Foschio, Buffalo, for respondent.
Before BASTOW, P. J., and DEL VECCHIO, MARSH, WITMER and HENRY, JJ.
Following the original argument of this appeal this Court held the case, reserved decision and remitted the matter to County Court for appropriate findings as to the voluntariness of a confession from the trial record and from the evidence adduced on a new hearing if demanded by either party. (28 A.D.2d 816, 281 N.Y.S.2d 956.) Thereafter a hearing was held before the Erie County Court, at which a number of witnesses were called by the People and following which the Court made a decision finding the confession to be involuntary as a matter of law and ordering its suppression.
From a review of the evidence it appears that all of the elements found by the trial court to constitute the totality of circumstances affecting the voluntariness of the confession were established by the testimony of the police officers at the Huntley Hearing.
However it does not appear that consideration of all the proof on the trial including the voir dire examination of witnesses before the trial judge and at the Huntley Hearing warrants a finding of any reasonable doubt as to the voluntariness of the confession. The defendant's oral statement to the police acknowledging his participation was given less than seven hours after his detention, a period of time far less than that present in those cases where illegal and prolonged detention has been held to be decisive coercive conduct. The questioning of the defendant within that period for less than two hours when he was first brought in to police headquarters, then interrupted for three or four hours and thereafter continued for twenty minutes or thirty minutes prior to his giving an oral acknowledgement of involvement in the crime falls far short of the kind of persistent and overbearing interrogation which has been held to be objectionable. While the defendant was not formally educated beyond the Fifth Grade his past experience in a Federal Prison and as a result of a prior conviction on a Federal charge of theft by force and State convictions for petit larceny and unlawful entry would indicate he was not entirely unprepared...
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