State v. Gardner
State v. Gardner
Opinion of the Court
Defendant, Ray Dempsey Gardner, appeals from a conviction of murder in the first degree and death sentence. He claims such conviction is invalid because his confession, made while he was in custody and when he was not promptly taken before a magistrate, was used as evidence against him. He makes no claim that the confession was coerced or involuntary but contends that it was prejudicial error to use such confession, made while he was being held and not taken without unnecessary delay before a magistrate contrary to Sec. 105 — 12—14, U.C.A. 1943, and that under Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution as construed by the United States Supreme Court, and Article 1, Sec. 7 of the Utah Constitution he was convicted without due process of law.
On July 21, 1949, the murdered body of Shirley Gret-zinger, an unmarried girl of seventeen years, was found in a clump of trees and bushes between a road south of Ogden, Utah and the adjacent sidewalk to the north. Her clothing, except her sandals, had been torn off, her body bruised, mutilated and violated and she had been strangled to death by wadded toilet paper in her throat. The night before she had failed to return home from a baby sitting engagement.
On July 18th, defendant left his employment on the Walton fruit farm some miles north of Ogden stating he was going to his home back east. On the evening of the
On searching the car he was driving, the 22 pistol and articles of clothing which were missed at the Walton farm when he disappeared therefrom on the evening of the 24th of July were found with other articles which indicated the car had been stolen and brought from Wyoming to Utah and still other articles which suggested a connection with Shirley Gretzinger. From this and the circumstances of his leaving the Walton farm on the 18th and return on the 21st he was suspected of that murder.
Early on the morning after his arrest, defendant interviewed a lawyer who was visiting another prisoner at the Weber County jail and he retained that lawyer and his associate which retention terminated September 13th. During the afternoon of his arrest, he interviewed the
On August 16th, the second day after his arrest, defendant was interviewed by two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They first informed him who they were and that he did not have to make any statement but could do so if he wished of his own free will and choice, that he had the right to consult counsel and that anything he said might be used against him in court. During that interview, he made a signed confession that he had stolen the green Dodge car in Wyoming and brought it to Utah, and on August 20th, he was charged with that offense and taken before the United States Commissioner on the 22nd, who bound him over to the Federal District Court where he was arraigned and pleaded not guilty on the 25th.
On September 3rd, while awaiting trial in the Federal court, he made a written confession to the Sheriff of Weber County that he had shot and killed a woman in Butte, Montana early in August a few days prior to his arrest. On that day he, with the sheriff and an Ogden City police officer, left for Butte where he took them and the Butte officers over the scene of the Butte killing and explained in detail how it occurred. He returned to Ogden on the 6th, and on the 8th the Dyer act charge in the Federal Court was dismissed, and he was charged with murder in the first degree in Butte, Montana and a warrant for his arrest was sent to the Weber County Sheriff. On Sunday September 10, 1949, at his request, defendant was granted an interview with the sheriff in the presence of a trustee of the jail, where he asked the nature of the evidence which
Here there is no claim that this confession was the result of actual coercion or pressure or was involuntary. There is not a word in the evidence that it was the result of any kind of coercion, pressure or mistreatment of any kind. It was made after repeated consultation with his lawyers and after he had twice been fully informed of his rights on previous occasions. He expressly requested that the
The mere fact that the sheriff refused to allow counsel to visit him every time counsel wished to does not render his confession inadmissible in evidence. There is no evidence that his defense was in any way hampered by these refusals or that the defendant wished to consult with such attorneys on those occasions. Some of the reasons which the sheriff gave for the refusals were that defendant did not want to be bothered, and that he was not in the jail at that time. As to some of the occasions, the latter reason was true for he was away on his trip to Montana from the 3d to the 6th, during which time some of these refusals occurred. The attorneys who represented the defendant at first were not the ones who represented him in this trial. The latter were appointed by the court after the Federal charge was dismissed and the employment of the first attorneys had ended. By our holding on this point, we do not approve or sanction any practice of holding a prisoner incommunicado or of unreasonably restricting his visit with counsel, relatives or friends. Such a practice has the earmarks of a purpose to coerce and evidence thereof might well be the determining factor in convincing the court that a statement was not voluntary where otherwise the court would conclude it was voluntary.
The mere fact that the confession was made while de
In the McNabb case, the officers delayed taking the prisoners before a magistrate in order to secretly question them and after several days of interrogation and other psychological pressure they confessed. The court held that the purpose of requiring promptness in bringing a prisoner before a magistrate is to check secret interrogation and that a confession made during such illegal detention whether or not it results from torture either physical or psychological is inadmissible. In the Mitchell case, it was found that the confession was made spontaneously within a few minutes after the arrest and before the illegal detention began, and that a delay of eight days thereafter in taking the prisoner before, a magistrate does not render the confession inadmissible because there was no disclosure induced by illegal detention and the evidence was not obtained in violation of the prisoner’s rights. In the Upshaw case, a voluntary confession was held inadmissible where obtained after thirty hours delay in taking the prisoner before a magistrate for the purpose of secret questioning in order to obtain sufficient evidence to hold him, because the confession was the fruits of the wrongdoing of the officers. It does not appear whether the same result would have been reached had the delay been merely an oversight or neglect without a purpose of secret questioning to ob
Although the federal statute construed in the McNabb case has for many years been the law and is similar to the laws of long standing in most states, as far as we can find no prior case has excluded a voluntary confession because the accused had not been promptly taken before a magistrate at the time he confessed. We find no state court which has adopted such a rule and several have expressly rejected it. See Mr. Justice REED’s dissent in the Upshaw case where he cites the folowing cases:
“Fry v. State, 78 Okl. Cr. 299, 147 P. 2d 803, 810, 811; State v. Folkes, 174 Or. 568, 150 P. 2d 17, 25; State v. Smith, 158 Kan. 645, 149 P. 2d 600, 604; People v. Malinski, 292 N. Y. 360, 55 N. E. 2d 353, 357, 365; State v. Collett, Ohio App., 58 N. E. 2d 417, 426, 427 [44 Ohio Law Abst. 225]; State v. Nagel, 75 N. D. 495, 28 N. W. 2d 665, 679; State v. Ellis, 354 Mo. 998, 193 S. W. 2d 31, 34 [37]; Finley v. State, 153 Fla. 394, 14 So. 2d 844; State v. Browning, 206 Ark. 791, 178 S. W. 2d 77, 78—80; Russell v. State, 196 Ga. 275, 26 S. E. 2d 528, 534.”
Unlike the federal rule which excludes evidence obtained in violation of the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure without a warrant, these federal courts’ confessions were not obtained in violation of any constitutional provision. Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616, 6 S. Ct. 524, 29 L. Ed. 746; Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383, 34 S. Ct. 341, 58 L. Ed. 652. Contrary to those decisions, this court has expressly refused to exclude such evidence. State v. Aimes, 62 Utah 476, 220 P. 704, 32 A. L. R. 375. The rule established by the McNabb and Upshaw cases is in that respect contrary to the rule previously recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States. Olmstead v. United States, 277 U. S. 438, 48 S. Ct. 564, 72 L. Ed. 944, 66 A. L. R. 376, that reliable evidence is admissible even
Rules excluding evidence because in obtaining it the officer violated a law have been criticized by writers and jurists, because they allow known criminals to go free in order to discipline the offending officers. It requires the court to try a collateral issue and requires the meting out of punishment without a formal complaint. 8 Wigmore on Evidence, 3rd Ed. Sections 2183, 2184, 2184a, 2184b and 2185, Justice REED’s dissent in the U-pshaw case, supra: “Inbau, The Confession Dilemma in the United States Supreme Court, 43 Ill. L. Rev. 442; 42 Mich. L. Rev. 679; 56 Harv. L. Rev. 1008; 47 Col. L. Rev. 1214.” Though about half of the states have followed the federal rule excluding evidence obtained by unlawful search and seizure under the emotion developed during prohibition, we find no state decision which excludes a voluntary confession because made at a time while the accused was being held without being taken promptly before a magistrate and many states have expressly refused to follow that rule. Twice since the MeNabb case we have held contrary to such rule. State v. Mares, 113 Utah 225, 192 P. 2d 861; Mares v. Hill, 118 Utah 484, 222 P. 2d 811.
To exclude such evidence deprives the state of reliable evidence for the purpose, it is said, to check the practice of secret questioning of prisoners. But it is not unlawful for officers to question prisoners suspected of crime as long as no coercion, physical or psychological,.is. exerted and no unfair advantage is taken. State v. Braasch
Rules of evidence should aid the court in correctly determining the facts in the case. 3 Wigmore on Evidence, 3rd Ed., sections 822, 823, 824 and 851; Lisenba v. California, supra; State v. Folkes, 174 Or. 568, 150 P. 2d 17. Excluding a confession because made while the maker was in custody and not promptly taken before a magistrate would greatly hinder rather than aid the court in correctly determining the facts, for there is nothing about
The defendant’s claim that he was convicted without due process of law, under Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 7, Article 1, of Utah’s Constitution, is also incorrect. The McNabb-Upskaw rule expressly does not involve constitutional due process but only the construction of the former federal statute and the present succeeding federal criminal procedure rule. Watts v. Indiana, 338 U. S. 49, 69 S. Ct. 1347, 93 L. Ed. 1801; Harris v. South Carolina, 338 U. S. 68, 69 S. Ct. 1354, 1357, 93 L. Ed. 1815; Turner v. Pennsylvania, 338 U. S. 62, 69 S. Ct. 1352, 1357, 93 L. Ed. 1810, deal with constitutional due process, but they merely hold that a conviction lacks due
Concurring Opinion
(concurring in the results).
I concur in the results.
This case points, up the difficulties a state would en
In this case, the twenty-day lapse between the confession and arraignment played no part in causing the defendant to confess, and the time he was incarcerated prior to his confession was not because of improper or illegal acts of the arresting officer. He was arrested on August 14, 1949, for interstate transportation of a stolen automobile. Two days later, he was interviewed by Federal Bureau of Investigation officers and on the 20th day of August he was charged with violation of the Dyer act, 18 U. S. C. A. §§ 2811 — 2313. On August 22nd, he was arraigned before a Federal Commissioner, and three days later pleaded not guilty to the charge. He had the benefit of counsel during these proceedings. While awaiting trial on the federal offense, he voluntarily confessed to having committed a murder in the state of Montana. In an effort to verify the statements made in this confession, he was taken to Montana and then returned to Ogden on September 6, 1949. The state of Montana preferred murder charges against him on September 8th, and a warrant of arrest on this charge was furnished to the sheriff of Weber County at Ogden. Upon receipt of the warrant of arrest for murder, and apparently to permit the defendant to be extradited to Montana, the federal authorities dismissed
Undoubtedly, there was some unaccountable delay after the confession and before the defendant was taken before a committing magistrate of this state to plead to the present charge, but I am unable to comprehend how this, in any way, caused or coerced him to confess to the crime. This' delay, if unnecessary, was subsequent to his statement of guilt. Moreover, there was not a single day prior to his confession that the defendant was unnecessarily confined. He was under felony charges at all times, and he makes no contention that he could have furnished a bail bond. It would be stretching the doctrine of the inadmissibility of involuntary confessions to its breaking point to hold that an accused being held for one offense could not confess to another. Fundamental and constitutional rights of a defendant can be protected without denying law enforcement agencies the right to obtain and use voluntary confessions which, even though given while in custody, embody expressions of free choice and from the evidence were apparently freely and voluntarily given.
Concurring Opinion
concurring in the results.
I concur with the results of the opinion of Mr. Justice WADE for the reasons stated in the opinion of Mr. Justice LATIMER which latter opinion states directly and succinctly the facts and reasons upon which I base my concurrence.
I add to my concurrence a notation in regard to one
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