State v. Franklin

• Decision Date: 03 August 1983
• Citation: 463 A.2d 749
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Linfield FRANKLIN.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 749

463 A.2d 749

STATE of Maine v. Linfield FRANKLIN.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued March 23, 1983.

Decided Aug. 3, 1983.

Anita M. St. Onge (orally), Charles K. Leadbetter, Asst. Attys. Gen., Augusta, for plaintiff.

Jeffco, May & Smart, Stephen T. Jeffco (orally), David Smart, Portsmouth, N.H., for defendant.

Before GODFREY, NICHOLS, ROBERTS, CARTER, ^* VIOLETTE, and WATHEN, JJ.

ROBERTS, Justice.

Linfield Franklin appeals from his conviction of murder, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1)(A) (1983), following a jury trial in the Superior Court, York County. On appeal, the defendant argues that the Superior Court erred in refusing to suppress oral and written statements and in excluding testimony of an expert witness. Because we conclude that the Superior Court erroneously excluded the expert testimony, we vacate the judgment.

I.

The evidence produced at trial would warrant belief in the following facts: Franklin is a 38-year-old unemployed machinist, working most recently as a taxi driver in the Kittery, Maine--Portsmouth, New Hampshire area where he has lived for the past ten years. He was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was raised by a succession of parents, relatives, and step-parents. He has an eleventh grade education supplemented by one year of trade school training.

Franklin was convicted of murder ¹ for the shooting death of his 25-year-old paramour, Jeannette Smith. Although she sometimes lived with her husband, Jeannette Smith frequently left her husband to live with Franklin for varying lengths of time. The relationship between Mrs. Smith and the defendant was unstable, but continued for the 5 1/2 years preceding her death. At all relevant times Franklin, Mrs. Smith, and their pre-school age daughter lived on one side of a small two-family house in Kittery with two women and three male Cuban "boat lift" refugees.

The members of the household began drinking beer at approximately 8:30 p.m. on November 19, 1981 and began going to bed about 4:30 a.m. the next morning. During this time Franklin consumed between two and three six-packs of beer. At about 8:30 p.m. he also ingested two amphetamine tablets and between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. shared a marijuana cigarette with approximately three other people. Mrs. Smith also drank beer that evening--enough that "she was starting to get loud." Both the defendant During the course of the party Franklin and Mrs. Smith had a brief argument, but quickly made amends. Evidently they quarreled frequently. Shortly after the other members of the household went upstairs to sleep, the couple quarreled again. Two gunshots were fired--one into the ceiling and one into Mrs. Smith's forehead at relatively close range. The defendant was heard leaving the house shortly after the second gunshot.

and the victim had a history of alcohol problems.

Franklin spent the next few hours sleeping in a truck. Between approximately 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. he was arrested as a "fugitive from justice" by officers of the Portsmouth Police Department as he attempted to "hitch" a ride to Seabrook, New Hampshire in search of employment. The arresting officer recovered five bullets from the defendant's pants pocket. Although Franklin admitted to carrying a gun "for protection," he did not possess a gun at the time of his arrest. ²

Franklin was interrogated at the Portsmouth Police Station by both Portsmouth and Maine police officers. He made statements which were used against him at trial despite his pretrial attempts to suppress on grounds that the statements were made involuntarily and obtained during illegal detention. At trial, the defense sought to generate a reasonable doubt as to the necessary culpable state of mind by introducing evidence of intoxication. See 17-A M.R.S.A. § 37 (1983). ³ The defense also sought to use evidence of intoxication to mitigate the impact of Franklin's extra-judicial statements. Franklin claims that exclusion of the testimony of an expert witness contributed to the jury's failure to entertain an intoxication defense and resulted in his erroneous conviction of murder.

II.

Franklin presents two arguments for reversing the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress. First, the defendant claims that the evidence does not support a finding beyond a reasonable doubt that the statements were voluntary. Second, the defendant argues that the statements should have been suppressed due to an alleged violation of M.R.Crim.P. 5(a). ⁴ We reject both of these arguments.

Franklin was interrogated throughout the day at the Portsmouth Police Station. Early in the day, a Portsmouth officer suggested immediate arraignment, but a Maine State Police detective preferred to wait for the arrival of a Maine Assistant Attorney General. Upon further inquiry, the Portsmouth officer was erroneously informed that court was no longer in session that Franklin argued in the Superior Court, as he does on appeal, that, due to a variety of factors, his statements were not voluntary and that he did not knowingly and intelligently waive his rights. Specifically, the defendant argues that the confession was extracted after seven hours of interrogation when he was in an emotionally and mentally disturbed and confused condition; that he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and had little sleep the night before; that he was not fully apprised of his rights and did not fully understand his rights; and that no inquiry was made into his educational background or his ability to read and write. Moreover, the defendant alleges that, although no promises or threats were made, his interrogation consisted of "repeated," "systematic," and "persistent" "pressure" and "demands" to remember and recount events of the night before for which he claimed a "blacked out" memory due to excessive alcohol consumption. The defendant further argued in the Superior Court, as he does on appeal, that the statements should be suppressed as a remedy or sanction for failure to bring him before a magistrate without unnecessary delay.

day. Hence, Franklin apparently was not arraigned until the next day.

The interrogating police officers testified at the suppression hearing that Franklin appeared "normal," that his answers were coherent, and that he exhibited no signs of intoxication. The Superior Court stated that "the court is ... satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant understood his rights and knowingly and voluntarily waived them. His conduct, his manner, his answers and apparent awareness all overwhelmingly lead to this conclusion." The Superior Court also concluded that the police "scrupulously advised defendant of his rights ... several times ...." Finally, the court found that the failure promptly to bring the defendant before a magistrate was an "inadvertent mistake" and "not for some nefarious police purpose ... as to extract a confession...."

A. Voluntariness of the Defendant's Statements

The State must establish the legal admissibility of a confession by the strict standard of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Collins, 297 A.2d 620, 627 (Me.1972). The trial justice must determine whether a statement is voluntary by considering the "totality of the circumstances." See State v. Caouette, 446 A.2d 1120, 1124 (Me.1982). The "trial court's determination will not be disturbed on appeal if there is evidence providing rational support for its conclusion." Id. (citations omitted). Adopting the values first articulated in Collins, we held in Caouette "that in order to find a statement voluntary, it must first be established that it is the result of defendant's exercise of his own free will and rational intellect." Id. at 1123; see also State v. Hazelton, 330 A.2d 919, 924 (Me.1975) ("Usual competency" to waive rights viewed in terms of "mental faculties and emotional and behavioral processes.").

We are satisfied that the State has met its burden to establish the legal admissibility of the defendant's confession beyond a reasonable doubt. There is evidence in the record providing rational support for the motion justice to conclude that, under the totality of the circumstances, the defendant's statements were voluntary. Neither the police conduct nor the interrogation at the Portsmouth Police Department amounted to compulsion. The defendant concedes that he was neither threatened nor promised anything. Moreover, the evidence of drug and alcohol consumption does not compel the fact-finder to entertain a reasonable doubt that Franklin was capable of rational and voluntary action. The evidence is sufficient to support the conclusion that, at least by approximately 9:00 a.m. on November 20, 1981, the defendant was rational and coherent. ⁵

B. Delay in Arraignment

Franklin's argument that his statements should be suppressed due to a violation of M.R.Crim.P. 5(a) is also without merit. Defense counsel urges us to apply a Maine rule, rather than the analogous New Hampshire rule, ⁶ even though the defendant was arrested, detained, and presumably brought before a magistrate in New Hampshire. Both rules emphasize the need to proceed without "unreasonable or unnecessary delay"--a requirement also found in the federal rules. Fed.R.Crim.P. 5(a).

In Maine, to determine whether there was unnecessary delay, the court must view the "totality of the circumstances" surrounding the delay in each case. State v. Thurston, 393 A.2d 1345, 1347-48 (Me.1978). The phrase "without unnecessary delay" must be interpreted in light of the general policies behind the rules, see, e.g., id.; 3 Glassman, Maine Practice: Rules of Criminal Procedure Annotated, § 5.1 at 37 (1967), and the "common sense" meaning of the words considering "the availability of a District Court judge in the area...." Glassman, supra, § 5.1 at 38.

Given the similarity of the Maine and New Hampshire rules, regardless of which procedural rules apply, we cannot say that the Superior Court erred in refusing to find that there...