State v. Griffin

• Decision Date: 05 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. 17052.,17052.
• Citation: 869 A.2d 640,273 Conn. 266
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Cyrus GRIFFIN.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

869 A.2d 640

273 Conn. 266

STATE of Connecticut v. Cyrus GRIFFIN.

No. 17052.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued October 19, 2004.

Decided April 5, 2005.

Moira L. Buckley, for the appellant (defendant).

Christopher T. Godialis, Assistant State's Attorney, with whom, on the brief, was Michael Dearington, State's Attorney, for the appellee (state).

BORDEN, NORCOTT, KATZ, PALMER and ZARELLA, Js.

Opinion

PALMER, J.

A jury found the defendant, Cyrus Griffin, guilty of manslaughter in the first degree with a firearm in violation of General Statutes § 53a-55a (a)¹ and carrying a pistol without a permit in violation of General Statutes § 29-35.² The trial court rendered judgment³ in accordance with the jury verdict, from which the defendant appealed to the Appellate Court, claiming, inter alia, that the trial court improperly had excluded certain expert testimony during the hearing on the defendant's motion to suppress his oral confession to the police following his arrest.⁴ The Appellate Court rejected the defendant's claim; State v. Griffin, 77 Conn.App. 424, 428, 823 A.2d 419 (2003); and we granted the defendant's petition for certification to appeal limited to that issue. State v. Griffin, 265 Conn. 910, 831 A.2d 252 (2003). We affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.

The opinion of the Appellate Court sets forth the following facts that the jury reasonably could have found. "At or around 2 p.m. on January 29, 1998, Denard Lester, accompanied by the defendant, robbed the eighteen year old victim, Tyshan Allbrooks, in New Haven. Lester took from the victim what witnesses described as a necklace or a medallion made of gold. The victim immediately went to a friend's nearby house, reported the incident to the police and, during an interview, provided a statement to the police who had responded to her complaint. After the robbery, the defendant, Lester and Tobias Greene were passengers in an automobile being operated by Paul Little. The defendant and Lester were fourteen years of age; Greene and Little were sixteen years of age.

"A short time later, at or around 2:45 p.m., the victim was walking along Whalley Avenue in New Haven when she was seen by the defendant, who was in the automobile with his acquaintances and was aware that the victim had reported the robbery to the police. The defendant remarked that `snitches get stitches,' got out of the automobile and chased the victim on foot. The victim ran [into] a convenience store where she asked an attendant to call for assistance. The defendant caught up to the victim, and shot her twice in the chest and four times in the back with his pistol, thereby causing her death." State v. Griffin, supra, 77 Conn.App. at 427, 823 A.2d 419.

The Appellate Court opinion also sets forth the following additional relevant facts and procedural history. "Prior to trial, on April 5, 1999, the defendant filed a motion to suppress `potential testimony and other evidence of any statements made by the [d]efendant.' It is not contradicted that, on February 2, 1998, police detectives arrested the defendant in an apartment in New Haven after they [had] discovered him hiding in a closet. The police thereafter took the defendant to the New Haven police department where Detectives Leroy Dease and Gilbert Burton interviewed him. At trial, Dease testified that the defendant told him that Lester had taken the victim's necklace from her and that after the robbery, the defendant, Lester, Greene and Little drove around New Haven. Dease further testified that the defendant told him that Greene, upon observing the victim walking across an intersection, [had] ordered [the defendant] to get out of the car and shoot the victim. Dease then testified that the defendant confessed that he [had] followed the victim [into] the convenience store and, with Greene standing nearby, `pulled out his small pistol and shot [the victim] several times.' According to Dease, the defendant also told him that he was afraid that Greene was going to shoot him and believed that Greene had ordered him to shoot the victim because [the defendant] owed Greene $300. Burton testified that he was present during the defendant's arrest and interview, and testified as to the circumstances under which the defendant [had] made his confession.

"The defendant supported his motion to suppress by asserting [inter alia] that he had made the statements, in which he confessed to having shot the victim ... involuntarily in violation of his due process rights...." Id., at 427-28, 823 A.2d 419.

"On April 19, 2001, prior to the hearing on the defendant's motion to suppress, the state filed a motion in limine to exclude `any and all opinion testimony of any expert witness regarding the waiver of Miranda<sup>5</sup> rights predicated upon an evaluative protocol created by Thomas Grisso or related to such protocol.' The state argued that such evidence was based on `scientific, technical and/or specialized knowledge which is unreliable.'

"At the evidentiary hearing on the defendant's motion to suppress... the defendant elicited testimony from Madelon V. Baranoski, a clinical psychologist employed by the Connecticut Mental Health Center at Yale University [School of Medicine]. Baranoski... is an associate clinical professor at Yale [University School of Medicine] and the associate director of the [New Haven] court clinic, which is affiliated with the law and psychiatry division of [the] department of psychiatry [of the school of medicine]. Baranoski testified that as part of her professional duties, she evaluates approximately 200 separate defendants in an average year to [determine] whether they are competent to stand trial.

"Baranoski testified that evaluating an individual's competency in regard to a particular stage of trial proceedings involves identifying what tasks are involved at such stage of the proceedings... and determining whether the individual possesses the competency to understand the issues and tasks related thereto. [Baranoski] testified that she evaluated the defendant to determine whether he possessed the competency to understand his Miranda rights. Baranoski explained that her evaluation involved several methods: A clinical interview, [intelligence quotient (IQ)] testing, personality testing, testing for reading and spelling proficiency, testing for arithmetic ability and general achievement testing. In addition to testing the defendant to determine his `overall competency,' Baranoski also tested the defendant with a `set of questions that had to do with the specific tasks in understanding the Miranda warning[s] and making a choice to waive [his] rights.'

"Baranoski explained that those questions were part of a protocol developed by ... Grisso, a forensic psychologist who has devoted his professional efforts to issues regarding `juvenile competency' and who works with a research group that researches issues of competency. She also testified that the Grisso testing `instrument,' which is part of the study protocol, consists of four parts that are scored by the test administrator." Id., at 429-30, 823 A.2d 419. "The first part tests a person's ability to explain accurately, in his or her own words, what aspects of the Miranda warnings mean. The second part tests `recognition' of Miranda rights, and the third part tests comprehension of the vocabulary [used in] the warnings. Finally, the fourth part, which involves pictures and stories about fictional persons being interrogated, tests a person's ability to recognize, during an interrogation, the function of the Miranda warnings." Id., at 430 n. 4, 823 A.2d 419.

"Baranoski explained the defendant's results as to each [part] of the Grisso test; she reported that he scored in the bottom 20 percent of juvenile test takers. She opined, on the basis of the defendant's results on the Grisso test, as well as on the basis of the defendant's results on the other evaluative measures she [had] employed during her evaluation, that the defendant `did not understand the right to remain silent as it applied to incriminating information ... and [that] he also did not understand the role of an attorney during the interrogation process.'

"The state argued in its ... motion in limine that expert testimony based on the Grisso protocol was inadmissible under the standard for admissibility of expert testimony set out in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 589-92, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), and adopted by [this court] in State v. Porter, 241 Conn. 57, 68, 698 A.2d 739 (1997) (en banc), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1058, 118 S.Ct. 1384, 140 L.Ed.2d 645 (1998), because it lacked grounding in scientific fact and was based on conjecture and speculation. [At the conclusion of the hearing on the defendant's motion to suppress], the state argued further that the testimony concerning the Grisso protocol fell `far short of what is required by Daubert' because of the test's rate of error and because the test lacked general acceptance in the appropriate expert community.

"In his opposition to the state's motion in limine, [defense counsel] argued that it was `unclear' whether the court should apply a Daubert type of analysis to testimony related to or based on the Grisso test. [Defense counsel] then addressed the Grisso test's admissibility in terms of the criteria for admissibility set forth in Daubert. [Defense] counsel argued that the Grisso test was admissible under what he [deemed to be] Porter's `liberal standard of admissibility.'" State v. Griffin, supra, 77 Conn.App. at 430-31, 823 A.2d 419.

The trial court granted in part and denied in part the defendant's motion to suppress. "The court suppressed any statements that the defendant had made to the police after such time when the police attempted to tape-record their interview, when, as the court found, the defendant had expressed his desire to terminate the [interview]. The court permitted testimony concerning the...