239 Conn. 405 | Conn. | 1996
The defendant, Ralph Byrd, was convicted after a jury trial of manslaughter for the stabbing death of his brother. At the defendant’s trial, the court admitted into evidence, for impeachment purposes, a statement made to the police by the defendant shortly after the crime had taken place. In making its ruling, the trial court determined that the defendant’s state
We granted certification to consider, inter alia, whether the record was sufficient to review the defendant’s state constitutional claim and, if it was, whether the defendant should have prevailed on that claim. We concluded that it was unclear whether, in determining that the defendant’s statement was voluntary, the trial court had applied the test in Connelly, or the totality of the circumstances test in Smith. State v. Byrd, 233 Conn. 517, 522-23, 659 A.2d 1201 (1995). Accordingly, we remanded the case to the trial court for the “purpose of articulating whether it found the defendant’s statement to be voluntary because of the absence of police misconduct, or on the basis of the totality of the circum
On July 8,1996, the trial court responded to our order for articulation stating that it had determined that the defendant’s statement to the police was voluntary under the pre-Connelly totality of the circumstances test used in Smith. The court further stated that it had relied on the following facts in reaching its conclusion: “(a) [the] defendant [was] given time by police to calm himself; (b) police provided the defendant with food and coffee; (c) [the] defendant [was] allowed contact with family members who were present; (d) police did not restrain the defendant (handcuffs not applied); (e) [the] defendant was calm, spoke freely, and did not exhibit slurred or incoherent speech; (1) [the] defendant appeared to understand all questions, was responsive thereto, and, as to such, did not refuse to answer any; and (g) [the] defendant had no difficulty completing [the] Miranda
Because the trial court in this case applied the pre-Connelly totality of the circumstances test that the defendant had urged it to adopt as the voluntariness standard under the state constitution, we need not decide whether, as a general matter, the standard for voluntariness under article first, § 8, is different from the federal standard enumerated in Connelly. The defendant’s sole remaining claim in the present appeal is that the record does not support the trial court’s finding of voluntariness. We disagree.
“The state bears the burden of proving the voluntariness of the defendant’s confession by a preponderance of the evidence. Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477, 484, 92
The judgment is affirmed.
The trial court did not specify whether it was deciding the voluntariness issue under the state or the federal constitution.
State v. Smith, supra, 200 Conn. 465, was decided by this court prior to the publication of Colorado v. Connelly, supra, 479 U.S. 167. Smith was decided solely on federal constitutional grounds.
See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966).