State v. Kelly
Citation | 603 S.W.2d 726 |
Parties | STATE of Tennessee, Petitioner, v. Walter Thomas KELLY, Respondent. |
Decision Date | 25 August 1980 |
Court | Supreme Court of Tennessee |
Robert L. Jolley, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., William M. Leech, Jr., Atty. Gen., Nashville, for petitioner.
Carl R. Ogle, Jr., Jefferson City, for respondent.
The defendant Kelly was convicted of second degree burglary and sentenced to a term in the penitentiary of not less than 3 years nor more than 7 years. The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction and remanded the case for a new trial, finding (1) that the trial judge erred in admitting over the defendant's objection an alleged confession and (2) that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that in fixing punishment it was at liberty to fix the maximum sentence at the same period of years as the minimum sentence allowed by law. We granted certiorari review to consider the issues raised respecting the alleged confession.
On September 21, 1976, a stereo and one speaker were stolen from a residence in Hamblen County. Three or four days later, after a conversation with co-defendant Brooks, investigators were led to a house where the stereo was recovered. On September 26, 1976, the 18-year-old defendant Kelly was arrested and placed in jail after his Miranda rights had been made known to him and he had signed a printed waiver form stating, inter alia, that he was willing to make a statement and answer questions without the presence of an attorney. Sometime thereafter he did make a statement to Officer Trippy in which he confessed commission of the crime with which he is charged in this case and Officer Trippy wrote this confession in his own handwriting on the back side of the Miranda rights waiver form.
On the day of trial the defendant made an oral motion to suppress the alleged confession, alleging that it was involuntarily given because induced by promises of assistance made by Officer Trippy. The court proceeded to conduct a hearing out of the presence of the jury respecting the admissibility of the alleged confession and after consideration of the conflicting and confusing testimony introduced upon this issue concluded that the alleged confession was voluntary and, therefore, overruled the motion to suppress and admitted the confession into evidence. The Court of Criminal Appeals reached a contrary conclusion, finding that "this defendant's confession was induced by the hope of reward wrongfully held out to him by an over zealous criminal investigator that if convicted he could be released on probation and not have to serve any prison sentence."
As above indicated, the evidence upon which the trial court acted and upon which this issue must be determined was conflicting and quite confusing but we may safely assume that the evidence most favorable to the state and which was accredited by the trial judge is represented by the following statement of Officer Trippy:
It was following the advice thus given the defendant by Officer Trippy that the defendant made his "confession."
Perhaps the leading case in this country dealing with the standard to be applied in determining whether an alleged confession of a criminal defendant is sufficiently voluntary to be admitted into evidence is Bram v. United States, 168 U.S. 532, 18 S.Ct. 183, 42 L.Ed. 568 (1897). In that case the Supreme Court interpreted the Fifth Amendment to mean that in order for a confession to be admissible it must be "free and voluntary; that is, must not be extracted by any sort of threats or violence, nor obtained by any direct or implied promises, however slight, nor by the exertion of any improper influence." 168 U.S. at 542-43, 18 S.Ct. at 187. Down through the years the Bram standard has been cited with approval and followed by the Supreme Court in Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 12 L.Ed.2d 653 (1964); Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970); Hutto v. Ross, 429 U.S. 28, 97 S.Ct. 202, 50 L.Ed.2d 194 (1976).
But, not all promises by state officers of leniency render involuntary confessions thereby induced. Relevant here is the decision of the Supreme Court in Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U.S. 534, 81 S.Ct. 735, 5 L.Ed.2d 760 (1961). In that case a prisoner sought relief from his conviction in the Connecticut state courts, alleging that the Connecticut courts had applied an unconstitutional standard in determining that his alleged confession was "voluntary." The alleged defect in the standard applied was that in order for a confession to be considered involuntary because induced by promises of leniency it was necessary not only to show that the promise induced the confession but that the promise had probably induced the defendant to confess falsely. In setting aside the Connecticut conviction because of the admission of a confession the voluntariness of which was determined by the faulted standard, the Supreme Court said:
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State v. Stephenson
...only be overcome on appeal if the evidence in the record preponderates against the trial court's findings. Id., see also State v. Kelly, 603 S.W.2d 726, 729 (Tenn.1980); State v. Johnson, 717 S.W.2d 298, 304-305 (Tenn.Crim.App.1986). The evidence in this record does not preponderate against......
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State v. Thacker
...183, 42 L.Ed. 568 (1897). This even applies to statements obtained after the proper Miranda warnings have been issued. See State v. Kelly, 603 S.W.2d 726 (Tenn.1980). Statements and confessions not made as a result of custodial interrogations must also be voluntary to be admissible. See Ari......
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