State ex rel. Williams v. Narick

• Decision Date: 04 April 1980
• Docket Number: No. 14697,14697
• Citation: 164 W.Va. 632,264 S.E.2d 851
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE ex rel. John Edward WILLIAMS v. Steven D. NARICK, Circuit Judge.

Page 851

264 S.E.2d 851

164 W.Va. 632

STATE ex rel. John Edward WILLIAMS v. Steven D. NARICK, Circuit Judge.

No. 14697.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

April 4, 1980.

Syllabus by the Court

1. "Where prohibition is sought to restrain a trial court from the abuse of its legitimate powers, rather than to challenge its jurisdiction, the appellate court will review each case on its own particular facts to determine whether a remedy by appeal is both available and adequate, and only if the appellate court determines that the abuse of powers is so flagrant and violative of petitioner's rights as to make a remedy by appeal inadequate, will a writ of prohibition issue." Syl. pt. 2, Woodall v. Laurita, 156 W.Va. 707, 195 S.E.2d 717 (1973).

2. In the absence of compelling evidence of irremediable prejudice, a writ of prohibition will not lie to bar trial based 3. When a trial judge conducts a hearing to inquire into the competence of an accused to stand trial, he sits to hear evidence and to rule preliminarily on a question of fact, and where there is some competent evidence before the court which will support a ruling of competence, the ruling will not be subject to attack. It is only in a case where there has been no evidence supporting a finding of competence that prohibition will lie.

upon the judge's pretrial ruling on a matter of evidentiary admissibility.

4. "To be competent to stand trial, a defendant must exhibit a sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and a rational, as well as factual, understanding of the proceedings against him." Syl. pt. 2, State v. Arnold, W.Va., 219 S.E.2d 922 (1975).

Schrader, Stamp & Recht and Michael J. Moyle, Wheeling, for petitioner.

Chauncey H. Browning, Jr., Atty. Gen., Frances W. McCoy, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charleston, for respondent.

McGRAW, Justice.

The petitioner, John Edward Williams, was indicted by the Marshall County grand jury in March, 1974, for the murders of Carlton and Dorothy Harris. Williams waS tried for the death of Dorothy Harris in April of 1975, and on May 14, 1975, he was convicted of murder in the first degree. That judgment was subsequently appealed to this Court and in a decision filed December 5, 1978, the conviction was reversed and the case remanded for a new trial. State v. Williams, W.Va., 249 S.E.2d 758 (1978). ¹

The reversal of the conviction in the first Williams opinion was based primarily upon evidentiary problems. Certain items of physical evidence which had been introduced by the state were held by this Court to be inadmissible as illegally seized. Additionally, the state had placed in evidence several confessions. Based upon the record in the case, the court concluded that the initial confession had been made as a result of the illegally seized physical evidence. For this reason, the confession was ruled inadmissible as the "fruit" of the illegal search and seizure. ² A question remained, however, concerning the admissibility of the second and all successive extrajudicial confessions. Without explicitly holding the succeeding confessions inadmissible, the Court noted that the State had failed to meet its burden of removing the taint of causation tracing back to the initial confession and the unlawful search and seizure. ³

Based upon the opinion issued in the first Williams case, counsel for the petitioner filed several motions in advance of trial. One of these motions requested suppression of all physical evidence ruled inadmissible by this Court, and suppression of "all five (5) confessions of the defendant." Upon Petitioner also raised the issue of his competence to stand trial. On July 25 and August 22, 1979, a hearing was held to resolve the issue. At the close of the hearing, Judge Narick ruled that Williams was competent to stand trial, basing this finding upon a preponderance of the evidence. ⁴

the motion, a hearing was held before the respondent, Judge Steven D. Narick of the Second Judicial Circuit. At that hearing, Judge Narick suppressed all physical evidence described, as well as the first confession given by the defendant. The motion to suppress the remaining four confessions was denied.

Based upon Judge Narick's rulings on these motions, the defendant Williams petitioned this Court for a writ of prohibition, citing as grounds Judge Narick's rulings concerning the confessions previously mentioned, and concerning the competence of the accused to stand trial. ⁵

I ADMISSIBILITY OF TAINTED CONFESSIONS

As a general rule, the standard for issuance of the writ of prohibition is set forth in W.Va. Code § 53-1-1. That section states that prohibition shall lie "in all cases of usurpation and abuse of power, when the inferior court has not jurisdiction of the subject matter in controversy, or, having such jurisdiction exceeds its legitimate powers."

Traditionally, the writ of prohibition speaks purely to jurisdictional matters. It was not designed to correct errors which are correctable upon appeal. State v. Muntzing, 146 W.Va. 878, 122 S.E.2d 851 (1961); Lake O'Woods Club v. Wilhelm, 126 W.Va. 447, 28 S.E.2d 915 (1944). Indeed, this Court has specifically stated that the writ does not lie to correct "mere errors" and that it cannot serve as a substitute for appeal, writ of error or certiorari. Handley v. Cook, W.Va., 252 S.E.2d 147 (1979); State ex rel. Casey v. Wood, 156 W.Va. 329, 193 S.E.2d 143 (1972); see also, City of Huntington v. Lombardo, 149 W.Va. 671, 143 S.E.2d 535 (1965).

Because of the nature of the writ, there has been a general reluctance to allow its use in interlocutory matters unless there was exhibited some obvious jurisdictional defect or purely legal error on the part of the trial court. In the absence of jurisdictional defect, the administration of justice is not well served by challenges to discretionary rulings of an interlocutory nature. These matters are best saved for appeal and, as a general rule, do not present a proper case for issuance of the writ. Woodall v. Laurita, 156 W.Va. 707, 195 S.E.2d 717 (1973); see also, State v. Milam, W.Va., 260 S.E.2d 295 (1979); State ex rel. Peacher v. Sencindiver, W.Va., 233 S.E.2d 425 (1977).

Where prohibition is sought to restrain a trial court from the abuse of its legitimate powers, rather than to challenge its jurisdiction, the appellate court will review each case or its own particular facts to determine whether a remedy by appeal is both available and adequate, and only if the appellate court determines that the abuse of powers is so flagrant and violative of petitioner's rights as to make a remedy by Viewed against this backdrop, it is clear that a writ of prohibition will not lie to bar trial based upon Judge Narick's ruling on the admissibility of confessions elicited from the petitioner. While Judge Narick's ruling on the matter may or may not be correct, it does not deprive his court of jurisdiction. Beyond that, however, the ruling does not really present a legal issue, but a factual one.

appeal inadequate, will a writ of prohibition issue. Syl. pt. 2, Woodall v. Laurita, 156 W.Va. 707, 195 S.E.2d 717 (1973).

In determining the admissibility of a confession, "the ultimate test remains that which has been the only clearly established test in Anglo-American courts for two hundred years: the test of voluntariness. Is the confession the product of an essentially free and unconstrained choice by its maker? If it is, if he has willed to confess, it may be used against him. If it is not, if his will has been overborne and his capacity for self-determination critically impaired, the use of his confession offends due process." Culombe v. Connecticut, 367 U.S. 568, 81 S.Ct. 1860, 6 L.Ed.2d 1037 (1961). See also, Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) (institution of procedural safeguards to insure voluntariness); cf. Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978) (requirement of voluntariness extended to use of admissions obtained in violation of Miranda for impeachment purposes).

This Court has adopted, as a guideline, a presumption that successive confessions are the product of the initial confession. State v. Williams, supra, citing Bunting v. Commonwealth, 208 Va. 309, 157 S.E.2d 204 (1967). However, this presumption is a rebuttable one. It has never been the law that "making a confession under circumstances which preclude its use perpetually disables the confessor from making a usable one after those conditions have been removed." United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. 268, 98 S.Ct. 1054, 55 L.Ed.2d 268 (1978); United States v. Bayer, 331 U.S. 532, 67 S.Ct. 1394, 91 L.Ed. 1654 (1947). While it is true that a confession induced by an unlawful search and seizure is inadmissible, Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 84 S.Ct. 229, 11 L.Ed.2d 171 (1963), it is also true that where police obtain a subsequent confession (or confessions) after obtaining one which is inadmissible there must be an independent evaluation of whether the coercive actions which produced the first continued to produce the later confession. United States v. Bayer, supra. See also, Darwin v. Connecticut, 391 U.S. 346, 88 S.Ct. 1488, 20 L.Ed.2d 630 (1968); Leyra v. Denno, 347 U.S. 556, 74 S.Ct. 716, 98 L.Ed. 948 (1954); Lyons v. Oklahoma, 322 U.S. 596, 64 S.Ct. 1208, 88 L.Ed. 1481 (1944).

In the first Williams opinion, we stated that:

There was no evidence demonstrating a break in the causative link running between the confessions in this case. The State did not meet its burden, and we must presume each confession was the product of the preceding illegalities. W.Va., 249 S.E.2d 764.

While all the confessions were presumed to be tainted, it was impossible to formally rule on the admissibility of any except the initial one. Since the initial confession was admitted into evidence in the first trial, there was no showing concerning the...