State v. Cranford

• Decision Date: 13 December 1971
• Docket Number: No. 9309,9309
• Citation: 491 P.2d 511,83 N.M. 294,1971 NMSC 120
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kenneth CRANFORD, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 511

491 P.2d 511

83 N.M. 294

STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kenneth CRANFORD, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 9309.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Dec. 13, 1971.

[83 NM 294] Joseph D. Beaty, Albuquerque, for defendant-appellant.

David L. Norvell, Atty. Gen., Ronald Van Amberg, James B. Mulcock, Jr., Asst. Attys. Gen., Santa Fe, for plaintiff-appellee.

OPINION

COMPTON, Chief Justice.

The defendant was convicted of first degree murder and now appeals alleging various grounds for reversal.

Appellant was arrested in Juarez, Mexico, by Mexican officials on January 18, 1971. Present but not participating in the arrest was Officer Willie Garcia of the New Mexico State Police, at whose request the arrest was made.

Appellant was held by Juarez officials for approximately three days, during which time he was questioned by Mexican authorities, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and by Officer Garcia. While in custody in Mexico appellant signed two Advice of Rights forms that were provided by the FBI agent, advising him of his constitutional rights as they applied in Mexico. The Advice of Rights forms signed by him deleted the section stating that an attorney would be provided appellant if he could not afford one. While in Mexico, appellant also gave a written statement to Officer Garcia in which he admitted killing Ellis Hall, which, over appellant's objection was admitted into evidence at his trial.

Appellant contends that the trial court committed prejudicial error in admitting into evidence his statement taken while appellant was in custody of the Mexican police. He further contends the court erred in admitting the Advice of Rights forms and certain statements made by him to the FBI agent while being interrogated in Mexico. He also contends that he was denied the right of counsel as guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, and urges us to apply Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, extraterritorially. These contentions were answered in United States v. Dopf, 434 F.2d 205 (5th Cir.), wherein the defendants had made statements while in the custody of Mexican authorities which were admitted into evidence at their trial in the United States. The rationale of the Dopf holding, supra, is persuasive. Though Dopf, supra, was reversed on other grounds, the court explicitly affirmed the lower court's ruling that the claimed constitutional rights of the defendants did not apply while they were in Mexico. Appellant's claim of errors is without merit. Due to the nonapplication of Miranda, supra, appellant's argument that the Advice of Rights forms should not have been entered into evidence is without merit.

Appellant's second point for reversal is that the trial court committed prejudicial error in denying his motion to suppress the statement given to Officer Garcia, as being involuntary, and in finding that the appellant's constitutional rights had not been violated. It is basic that in a criminal case, a defendant is deprived of due process of law if his conviction is founded, in whole or in part, upon an involuntary confession, without regard for truth or falsity of the confession, and even though there is other ample evidence to support the conviction. Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U.S. 534, 81 S.Ct. 735, 5 L.Ed.2d 760, and Malinski v. New York, 324 U.S. 401, 65 S.Ct. 781, 89 L.Ed. 1029. Once the trial court, as here, properly determined the confession to be voluntary and admitted it into...