State v. Kelly

Citation603 S.W.2d 726
PartiesSTATE of Tennessee, Petitioner, v. Walter Thomas KELLY, Respondent.
Decision Date25 August 1980
CourtSupreme 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.

OPINION

BROCK, Chief Justice:

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:

"The only thing I advised Mr. Kelly was if he was guilty and convicted over here that upon his statement, cooperation in the case, that if he was guilty and he admitted it, it would be easier for him and that we would not resist his probation hearing at the time of conviction, that it would be easier for him to go over here if he had done it, or had taken part in it, if we had the confession and he owned up to his part, it would be easier in the eyes of the court to determine probation. But that I myself couldn't do it; I would ask the District Attorney not to resist his probation here."

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:

"Our decisions under that (Fourteenth) Amendment have made clear that convictions following the admission into evidence of confessions which are involuntary, i. e., the product of coercion, either physical or psychological, cannot stand. This is so not because such confessions are unlikely to be true but because the methods used to extract them offend an underlying principle in the enforcement of our criminal law: that ours is an accusatorial and not an inquisitorial system a system in which the State must establish guilt by evidence independently and freely secured and may not by coercion prove its charge against an accused out of his own mouth. (Citations omitted.) To be sure, confessions cruelly extorted may be and have been, to an unascertained extent, found to be untrustworthy. But the constitutional principle of excluding confessions that are not voluntary does not rest on this consideration. Indeed, in many of the cases in which the command of the Due Process Clause has compelled us to reverse state convictions involving the use of confessions obtained by impermissible methods, independent corroborating evidence left little doubt of the truth of what the defendant had confessed. Despite such verification, confessions were found to be the product of constitutionally impermissible methods in their inducement. Since a defendant had been subjected to pressures to which, under our accusatorial system, an accused should not be subjected, we were constrained to find that the procedures leading to his conviction had failed to afford him that due process of law which the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees.

"From a fair reading of these expressions (excerpts from the opinions of the Connecticut courts), we cannot but conclude that the question whether...

To continue reading

Request your trial
179 cases
  • State v. Stephenson
    • United States
    • Tennessee Supreme Court
    • May 9, 1994
    ...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......
  • State v. Thacker
    • United States
    • Tennessee Supreme Court
    • April 27, 2005
    ...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......
  • State v. Middlebrooks
    • United States
    • Tennessee Supreme Court
    • September 8, 1992
    ...totality of the circumstances. Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 318, 105 S.Ct. 1285, 1298, 84 L.Ed.2d 222, 238 (1985); State v. Kelly, 603 S.W.2d 726, 728-29 (Tenn.1980). Before there can be a voluntary and knowing waiver, "the accused must be adequately and effectively apprised of his right......
  • State v. Banks
    • United States
    • Tennessee Supreme Court
    • November 7, 2008
    ...was such as to overbear" the will of an accused and "bring about confessions not freely self-determined." Id. (citing State v. Kelly, 603 S.W.2d 726, 728 (Tenn.1980)). The testimony revealed that the Appellant's communication skills appeared adequate and that he was capable of reading, writ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT