Lead Opinion
Opinion
The defendant, David Lawrence, appeals
The jury reasonably could have found the following relevant facts. In June, 2001, the defendant resided at 95 Ives Street in the city of Waterbury with his wife, Beverly Lawrence (Beverly), their two minor children and their four minor grandchildren, of whom they had legal custody.
I
The defendant first claims that the trial court improperly denied his motion to suppress certain oral and written statements that he had made to the police concerning ownership of the cocaine and packaging paraphernalia found in his residence. The defendant claims that these statements were the product of police coercion, namely, the threat that the department of children and families would remove his children and grandchildren from his home unless he confessed to owning the cocaine. In support of this claim, the defendant makes two arguments. First, the defendant contends that the trial court improperly found, based on a preponderance of the evidence, that the alleged threats had not occurred and, therefore, that the defendant’s statements had been made voluntarily. Alternatively, the defendant urges this court to overrule State v. James,
The following additional facts and procedural history are necessary for our resolution of this claim. On August 14, 2003, the defendant filed a motion to suppress “any oral or written statements made by him to law enforcement authorities in connection with the [present] case” because, inter alia, the “statements in question were not given voluntarily” and, therefore, had been obtained in violation of the defendant’s due process rights under article first, § 8, of the constitution of Connecticut.
At the suppression hearing, both the state and the defendant stipulated that Michael Goggin, a detective with the Waterbury police department, who allegedly had threatened the defendant, was unavailable to testify. Upon the state’s motion, the trial court admitted into evidence Goggin’s prior testimony at the defendant’s probable cause hearing. Goggin testified that, on June 21, 2001, he assisted in the execution of a search warrant for the defendant’s residence. Upon entry into the home, Goggin secured the defendant, advised him
The state also presented the testimony of Patrick Moynihan, a Waterbury police detective who had
Frank Koshes, a sergeant in the vice and intelligence unit of the Waterbury police department, also testified at the suppression hearing. Koshes, who had assisted in the search of the defendant’s residence and in the transportation of the defendant to police headquarters, testified that neither Goggin nor any other police officer had threatened the defendant. Koshes farther testified that he was stationed immediately outside of the office where Goggin interviewed the defendant, and that the door was partially open so that he could “go right in and intervene” if “voices got raised, or if there was any kind of problem . . . .” Koshes did not hear raised voices or anything unusual during the interview, however, that would necessitate his intervention. At the conclusion of the interview, Koshes reviewed the defendant’s written statement. After evaluating the defen
The defendant testified at the suppression hearing on his own behalf. The defendant testified that, in 1998, he and Beverly lived in North Carolina with their two minor children and their four minor grandchildren, of whom they had physical, but not legal, custody. In October of that year, Beverly brought the children and grandchildren to Connecticut to visit Althea Vines, the adult daughter of the defendant and Beverly and the mother of their four grandchildren. One afternoon, Beverly left her children and grandchildren in the care of Vines while she went shopping. The defendant testified that when Beverly returned, she discovered that Vines had gotten into “some type of argument with someone, and . . . the police were called, and when they came in, there were drugs found at the residence. So, at that point, the kids were . . . taken away from [Vines] and placed in the custody of the [department of children and families].” The department of children and families released the defendant’s children into Beverly’s custody later that same day. Because neither Beverly nor the defendant had legal custody of their grandchildren, however, the grandchildren were held for approximately ninety-six hours. In the meantime, the defendant traveled to Connecticut to assist Beverly in securing the safe return of their grandchildren. After the expiration of the ninety-six hour period, the department of children and families released the four grandchildren into the physical custody of the defendant on the condi
The defendant’s testimony concerning the events on June 21,2001, largely mirrored the testimony of Goggin, Moynihan and Koshes, with the exception of Goggin’s alleged threats concerning the removal of the defendant’s children and grandchildren by the department of children and families. The defendant testified that, prior to commencing the search of his home, Goggin had said, “well, you know, you can make it easier on yourself. Just tell us where the drugs are, and we’ll make sure, you know, that [the department of children and families] does not . . . take your kids.” After the defendant informed Goggin that no narcotics were present in the home, the police searched the defendant’s residence and found cocaine in his bureau. The defendant testified that, “the officer asked me were [the drugs] mine, and I said, no. At that point, when I said no, one of the officers, not the officer that had me in [hand] cuffs, but one of the officers . . . asked me where’s the money. I said, what money? He said, do you have any more drugs or money in this house? I said, no, there’s no more drugs or money in this house. What you say you found, apparently that’s it. He said, well, we know there’s more drugs ... in this house. We are going to have [the department of children and families] come in and take your kids. At that point, with the thought of . . . what I had already gone through with [the department of children and families], I said to him, I said, listen, you say you found drugs here, whatever you say you found. I said, I will take total responsibility for that. I do not want my kids or wife
The defendant subsequently was transported to police headquarters, where he produced a sworn written statement. The defendant testified that, “[b]ecause of what the officer told me at my house about [the department of children and families], that he would make sure that if I gave him a statement that the drugs were mine, and if I gave him a signed statement, he would make sure he absolutely guaranteed me that [the department of children and families] would not come in and take my kids. And that was the most important thing in my mind, because I had dealt with [the department of children and families] before, and I had my four grandkids living with me already in North Carolina, and the reason being, was because of my daughter’s— my daughter was young at the time she had the kids, so we’ve always had the kids with us, and I always did the best I could to try to keep my family together. And because of the dealings with [the department of children and families] and because of just trying to keep my family together, that was the reason that I gave them that statement, because he absolutely assured me that [the department of children and families] would not come in and take my kids if I gave him a statement.”
On March 1, 2004, the trial court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress. The trial court rejected the defendant’s claim that it must apply the reasonable doubt standard and, instead, followed “the existing law of Connecticut when making [its] determinations,
“Factors that may be taken into account, upon a proper factual showing, include: the youth of the accused; his lack of education; his intelligence; the lack of any advice as to his constitutional rights; the length of detention; the repeated and prolonged nature of the questioning; and the use of physical punishment, such as the deprivation of food and sleep. . . .
“To begin, we note the established rule that [t]he trial court’s findings as to the circumstances surrounding the defendant’s interrogation and confession are findings of fact . . . which will not be overturned unless they are clearly erroneous. . . .
“[Although we give deference to the trial court concerning these subsidiary factual determinations, such deference is not proper concerning the ultimate legal determination of voluntariness. . . . Consistent with
A
We first address the defendant’s claim that the trial court improperly found that Goggin had not threatened the defendant with the removal of his children and grandchildren by the department of children and families. The defendant claims that this finding of fact is clearly erroneous because Goggin was unavailable to testify at the suppression hearing and, therefore, the trial court did not have the opportunity to assess personally Goggin’s credibility. Additionally, the defendant contends that Goggin’s prior testimony at the defendant’s probable cause hearing, which was admitted into evidence at the suppression hearing, did not address the voluntariness of the defendant’s statements and, therefore, “gave the trial court no insight into whether . . . the threats [of removal had] occurred.” We conclude that the trial court’s factual finding concerning the occurrence of the alleged threats is not clearly erroneous.
“The law governing [our] limited appellate review is clear. A finding of fact is clearly erroneous when there is no evidence in the record to support it ... or when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. . . . Because it is the trial court’s function to weigh the evidence and determine credibility, we give great
At the suppression hearing, the defendant testified that he admitted to ownership of the cocaine only because Goggin had threatened that the department of children and families would remove his children and grandchildren from his home if he did not confess. Both Moynihan and Koshes testified, however, that neither Goggin nor any other police officer had threatened the defendant. Moreover, Goggin, who testified as to the circumstances leading to the defendant’s oral and written statements, did not mention that these statements had been precipitated by any threats or references to the department of children and families. The trial court resolved the conflicting evidence in favor of the state, finding that the alleged threats had not occurred. Specifically, the trial court did not find the defendant’s testimony concerning the alleged threats to be credible and, therefore, declined to credit it. It is well established that “[i]t is within the province of the trial court, when sitting as the fact finder, to weigh the evidence presented and determine the credibility and effect to be given the evidence. . . . Credibility must be assessed . . . not by reading the cold printed record, but by observing firsthand the witness’ conduct, demeanor and attitude. ... An appellate court must defer to the trier of fact’s assessment of credibility because [i]t is the [fact finder] . . . [who has] an opportunity to observe the demeanor of the witnesses and the parties; thus [the fact finder] is best able to judge the credibility of the witnesses and to draw necessary inferences therefrom. ”
The defendant claims, however, that although this court ordinarily defers to the trial court’s assessment of credibility, such deference is unwarranted in this case because the trial did not have the opportunity to observe personally the in-court testimony of the relevant witnesses. Specifically, the defendant claims that because the trial court did not have the opportunity to observe Goggin’s conduct, demeanor and attitude on the witness stand, and because the trial court’s assessment of the defendant’s credibility necessarily is intertwined with its assessment of Goggin’s credibility, we should afford no deference to the trial court’s credibility assessments. We reject this claim for two reasons. First, although the trial court did not have the opportunity to observe Goggin’s in-court testimony, it did have the opportunity to observe the defendant’s in-court testimony, which it did not find credible. Second, the defendant misapprehends the fundamental distinction between the function of the fact finder, which is to make credibility determinations and to find facts, and the function of the appellate tribunal, which is “to review, and not to retry, the proceedings of the trial court.” In re Quanitra M.,
The defendant next claims that, in finding that the alleged threats had not occurred, the trial court improperly relied on Goggin’s prior testimony from the probable cause hearing at which the voluntariness of the defendant’s statements and, thus, the occurrence of the alleged threats, was not at issue.
B
The defendant next claims that this court should overrule State v. James, supra,
As a preliminary matter, we briefly review Lego v. Twomey, supra,
In State v. Staples,
In State v. James, supra,
With respect to sister state authority, we noted that, although a minority of states have concluded that the voluntariness of a confession must be established by proof beyond a reasonable doubt, a “substantial majority of states to have considered this issue have followed Lego v. Twomey, supra,
With respect to historical considerations, we noted that, “[t]he authorities relied upon by the defendant reflect the common-law evidentiary rule that a confession may be kept from the jury if the circumstances under which it was given render it unreliable evidence of guilt. . . . The purpose of the rule, which arose during the middle of the eighteenth century, prior to which time extrajudicial confessions were freely admitted . . . was to protect a defendant from an erroneous conviction based upon a false confession. . . . Generally, the approach under the common law rule was to identify certain inducements which made a confession unreliable. ... As frequently stated, the rule required a confession to be excluded from evidence, as involuntary, if it was obtained as a result of a promise of a benefit or leniency or a threat of harm. . . . This princi
“In Rogers v. Richmond,
“It is clear, then, that the common law exclusionary rule employed a different notion of voluntariness and relied upon a different rationale for excluding confession evidence than its constitutional counterpart. The former was an evidentiary rule aimed at safeguarding the trustworthiness of evidence at trial, while the latter is aimed at protecting a criminal defendant’s right to be free from compulsion to incriminate himself or herself. Our common law on this issue, is, therefore, of limited usefulness in defining the contours of the constitutional exclusionary rule, for the common law authorities upon which the defendant relies simply did not address themselves to the question of what rule or standards of proof would be appropriate or necessary to effectuate the goal of protecting a criminal defendant’s right to be free from coercion, without regard to the
With respect to the defendant’s claim that a voluntariness determination serves the important public interest of ensuring the accuracy of a jury’s verdict, we noted that we previously had rejected this claim in State v. Staples, supra,
“We have said that [t]he function of the burden of proof employed by the court is to allocate] the risk of error between the litigants and indicate] the relative importance of the ultimate decision. ... [A] standard of proof represents an attempt to instruct the fact finder concerning the degree of confidence our society thinks he should have in the correctness of factual conclusions for a particular type of adjudication. Although the phrases preponderance of the evidence and proof beyond a reasonable doubt are quantitatively imprecise, they do communicate to the finder of fact different notions concerning the degree of confidence he is expected to have in the correctness of his factual conclusions. . . . Further, the standard of proof influences the relative frequency ... of erroneous outcomes . . . either in favor of the state when the true facts warrant judgment for the defendant or in favor of the defendant when the true facts warrant judgment for the state. . . . Because the standard of proof affects the comparative frequency of these two types of erroneous outcomes, the choice of the standard to be applied in a particular kind of litigation should, in a rational world, reflect an assessment of the comparative social disutility of each. . . .
“The preponderance standard is said to [require] the trier of fact to believe that the existence of a fact is more probable than its nonexistence before [it] may find in favor of the party who has the burden to persuade the [trier] of the fact’s existence . . . and to reflect the
With this background in mind, we addressed the defendant’s claim that his right to be free from self-incrimination required the imposition of the standard of proof that minimized, to the greatest extent possible, the risk of an erroneous decision on voluntariness in favor of the state. We observed that, “[t]he state, of course, currently bears the burden of persuasion on the voluntariness issue, and must convince the trial court by a preponderance of the evidence that the confession sought to be admitted was voluntarily given. Our focus in the present inquiry is, therefore, on any incremental gains to be realized from imposing the higher reasonable doubt standard. As the defendant points out, this determination often turns on the trial court’s resolution of conflicting testimony by police and the accused. In such circumstances, we believe, it is only in rare cases that the trial court might be convinced by a preponderance of the evidence that a confession is voluntary but nevertheless harbor a reasonable doubt about the same. Although closing this gap would of course benefit defendants in those cases, we are unpersuaded that it would significantly advance the deterrence function of the exclusionary rule. The greatest part of any deterrent effect of exclusion must, in the first instance, be attributed to requiring the prosecution to prove, even by a preponderance, that the confession sought to be admitted was not obtained by improper methods. We are not convinced that the exclusion of confessions in very close cases, under the reasonable
“We also are unpersuaded that the relationship between the court’s preliminary determination of voluntariness and the accuracy of jury verdicts provides a compelling basis for imposing a higher standard of proof. The defendant’s contention, and that of some sister states, that this concern is weighty appears to rest on two premises: first, that involuntary confessions are of highly suspect reliability, and second, that juries are likely to accept a confession uncritically. With regard to the first, however, the defendant has not suggested, nor do we perceive, that involuntariness necessarily equates with falsity. Although coercion is reasonably thought to create a reason to confess falsely, whether a particular coerced confession is also likely to be false depends on many variables. Thus, the exclusion of a confession where there is a reasonable doubt about its voluntariness does not invariably mean that a false confession has been suppressed. Furthermore, safeguards against the admission of false confessions other than a stringent burden of proof are already in place. The state must demonstrate the corpus delicti of the crime to which the defendant has confessed. . . . Additionally, the defendant ... [is free] to familiarize a jury with circumstances that attend the taking
“At stake for the state in the application of any exclusionary rule is its interest in efficient, effective law enforcement. The exclusionary rule at issue occasions the loss of otherwise relevant and powerful evidence of guilt, the loss of which might seriously weaken if not decimate a state’s case. The cost of the trial court possibly excluding more confessions because of a higher standard of proof is to permit defendants to avoid trial and a just conviction by a jury, when the jury would have the opportunity to consider all of the circumstances under which the confession was elicited and weigh it accordingly. We are not persuaded that any incremental, indirect or speculative benefit that might flow from imposition of the reasonable doubt standard to the voluntariness determination substantially outweighs its increased costs to effective law enforcement and to the truth seeking process. . . . We remain convinced, rather, that the preponderance standard provides a fair and workable test; State v. Staples, supra,
The defendant first claims that, in James, this court improperly declined to follow the lead of those states that require the voluntariness of a confession to be established by proof beyond a reasonable doubt under state law.
The defendant next claims that Connecticut’s unique “legal history and common law require the state to prove that a confession was voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt.” In support of this claim, the defendant relies on the same case law commentary by Swift and Blackstone as did the defendant in James. See footnote 12 of this opinion. For the reasons explained in James, “we do not read the common-law rule as applied in this state to have held the prosecution to an especially severe standard of proof . . . and, consequently, we agree with the state that it does not support the defendant’s claim.” (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. James, supra,
Lastly, the defendant and the amicus curiae Connecticut Ciiminal Defense Lawyers Association claim that the reasonable doubt standard is necessary both to protect adequately a criminal defendant’s right to be free from self-incrimination, and to ensure the accuracy and reliability of a jury verdict based on confession evidence. In support of this claim, the amicus curiae relies on various sociological studies indicating that juries are unable to recognize and disregard false confessions. See, e.g., S. Drizin & R. Leo, “The Problem of False Confessions In the Post-DNA World,” 82 N.C. L. Rev. 891, 962-63, 996 (2004); R. Leo & R. Ofshe, “The Consequences of False Confessions: Deprivations of
As a preliminary matter, we note that neither the defendant, the amicus curiae nor the dissenting opinion have pointed to a single case in which a defendant was convicted wrongfully in the state of Connecticut on the basis of false confession evidence. See footnote 3 of the dissenting opinion. Accordingly, we can perceive no reason to conclude that the existing procedural safeguards in this state against the admission of false confession evidence are inadequate, or that the juries of this state are unable to recognize and disregard false confessions.
Assuming arguendo, however, that the studies on which the amicus curiae and the dissenting opinion rely do not reflect isolated incidences in which justice was miscarried, but, rather, reflect a national trend concerning the undue weight afforded to false confession evidence by juries generally, we note that it is unclear what percentage, if any, of the false confessions identified in these studies were elicited by governmental coercion and, thus, were involuntary. Indeed, the studies establish that the “false confession problem is . . . not pandemic in the American criminal justice system, but rather concentrated among a narrow and vulnerable
The dissenting opinion states that, “the significant role of false confessions in wrongful convictions necessarily implicates the voluntariness concern” because
For the reasons articulated in James and herein, we remain convinced that requiring the state to prove the voluntariness of a confession by a preponderance of the evidence, rather than by proof beyond a reasonable doubt, “strikes the appropriate balance, in light of our historical background and contemporary policy concerns, between the various interests at stake.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. James, supra,
II
The defendant next claims that the trial court improperly instructed the jury on the presumption of innocence and the state’s burden of proof in violation of the defendant’s right to a fair trial under the due process clauses
We begin with a review of the jury instruction at issue. After instructing the jury on, inter alia, the presumption of innocence, the state’s burden of proof and the essential elements of the crimes charged, the trial
Our standard of review for claims of instructional impropriety is well established. “The principal function of a jury charge is to assist the jury in applying the law correctly to the facts which they might find to be established .... When reviewing [a] challenged jury instruction . . . we must adhere to the well settled rule that a charge to the jury is to be considered in its entirety . . . and judged by its total effect rather than by its individual component parts. . . . [T]he test of a court’s charge is . . . whether it fairly presents the case to the jury in such a way that injustice is not done to either party .... In this inquiiy we focus on the substance of the charge rather than the form of what was said not only in light of the entire charge, but also within the context of the entire trial. . . . Moreover, as to unpreserved claims of constitutional error in jury instructions, we have stated that under the third prong of Golding, [a] defendant may prevail . . . only if . . . it is reasonably possible that the jury was misled . . . .” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Carpenter,
The defendant claims that the trial court’s instruction undermined the presumption of innocence and the state’s burden of proof by “bolstering the credibility of both the state and the individual state’s attorney who
The defendant next claims that the trial court committed plain error because it disregarded the Appellate Court’s suggestion in State v. Wilson, supra,
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion NORCOTT, PALMER, VERTE-FEUILLE, ZARELLA and GRUENDEL, Js., concurred.
Notes
We transferred the defendant’s appeal from the Appellate Court to this court pursuant to Practice Book § 65-4 and General Statutes § 51-199 (b), which provides in relevant part: “The following matters shall be taken directly to the Supreme Court ... (3) an appeal in any criminal action involving a conviction for a capital felony, class A felony, or other felony, including any persistent offender status, for which the maximum sentence which may be imposed exceeds twenty years . . . .”
The defendant’s residence at 95 Ives Street is located within a 1500 foot radius of Slocum School Head Start, a licensed child day care center.
Article first, § 8, of the constitution of Connecticut provides in relevant part: “No person shall be . . . deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law . . . .”
The defendant’s written statement provides: “I, David Lawrence, age [forty-six], give the following statement to Detective Goggin of my own free will and say that no threats or promises have been made to me. I understand that I am under arrest for narcotics. Detective Goggin has advised me of my rights which I understand and which I waive. I understand that this statement can be used against me in a court of law. Tonight the [p]olice came to my home, 95 Ives Street, with a search and seizure warrant for drugs. The [p]olice searched my home and in my bedroom, they found all of my cocaine. The [p]olice found approximately [four] ounces of powder cocaine and some crack cocaine already packaged for street sale. I knew that I was caught and decided to cooperate with the [p]olice. I do not have a job and sell cocaine to make money. The [p]olice also found money in my bedroom. The money they found, was money, that I made from selling cocaine. I just want to say that all the drugs found in my bedroom tonight, belongs to me and no one else. My wife, Beverly Lawrence has nothing to do with my cocaine business. I purchase the cocaine by myself and I package and sell the cocaine all by [myself]. I know what I was doing was wrong and I am sorry. I have read this statement and it is the truth.”
Moynihan testified that it was the police department’s “normal course of action” to attempt to obtain “as much information from [the target of the investigation] as we can regarding the investigation, or what we are seeking at that apartment. In turn, [we might] not [have] to turn the apartment upside down and seek out any drugs or weapons that we might be looking for.”
Koshes first asked the defendant if he could read and write the English language, to which the defendant responded, “yes.” Koshes then asked the defendant to read the first sentence of the statement aloud, which the defendant did accurately.
On February 3, 2005, the defendant moved for an articulation of the trial court’s ruling with respect to, inter alia, “the specific facts that led the trial court to disbelieve the defendant’s testimony regarding the alleged threats of involvement [by the department of children and families] made by a Waterbury police detective?” The trial court denied the defendant’s motion. Thereafter, the defendant moved the Appellate Court to review the trial court’s denial of his motion for articulation. The Appellate Court granted the motion for review, but denied the relief requested therein.
The trial court found the following additional facts pertinent to the voluntariness of the defendant’s statements: (1) the defendant was forty-six years of age, intelligent, and able to read and write the English language; (2) “ [t]here is no indication in the evidence that the [length of the defendant’s] detention in any way seemed to overwhelm the defendant’s will or reasoning process”; (3) “[t]here is no indication that the defendant was subjected to anything like the kind of exhausting or incessant questioning the courts have found troubling”; (4) “[t]here is nothing in the record from which the court can conclude that the defendant was sleep deprived, asleep or even tired”; (5) “[i]t is not alleged that the defendant was in any way whatsoever, physically abused or punished while giving the statement, nor is there any evidence of that”; and (6) “[t]he evidence establishes that the defendant was cooperative and in full possession of his faculties when he spoke to the police.” The trial court concluded that, “[considering the totality of the circumstances, there is no evidence that the defendant’s decision to waive his rights and talk to the police was anything other than the result of his free, considered and understood choice.”
Although the extent to which the trial court relied on Goggin’s prior testimony is unclear, we assume for the purpose of our analysis of the defendant’s claim that the trial court relied, at least in part, on Goggin’s prior testimony to find that the alleged threats involving the department of children and families had not occurred.
In Geisler, we enumerated the following six factors to be considered in determining whether the constitution of Connecticut provides greater protection to our citizens than the federal constitution: “(1) persuasive relevant federal precedents; (2) the text of the operative constitutional provisions; (3) historical insights into the intent of our constitutional forebears; (4) related Connecticut precedents; (5) persuasive precedents of other state courts; and (6) contemporary understandings of applicable economic and sociological norms, or as otherwise described, relevant public policies.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Ledbetter,
The court observed that, although there may be some relationship between coerced confessions and unreliable confessions, “the exclusion of unreliable confessions is not the purpose that a voluntariness hearing is designed to serve. . . . The sole issue in such a hearing is whether a confession was coerced. Whether it be true or false is irrelevant; indeed, such an inquiry is forbidden. The judge may not take into consideration evidence that would indicate that the confession, though compelled, is reliable, even highly so. . . . As difficult as such tasks may be to accomplish, the judge is also duty-bound to ignore implications of reliability in facts relevant to coercion and to shut from his mind any internal evidence of authenticity that a confession itself may bear.” (Citations omitted.) Lego v. Twomey, supra,
“See 2 Z. Swift, A Digest of the Laws of the State of Connecticut (1823) p. 408 (‘[C]onfessions are from their nature liable to suspicions ... so likely to be influenced by hope, or fear, and so liable, like all hearsay evidence to be misrepresented, and changed in the narration, that the law does not suffer them to be received except under peculiar circumstances. . . . [T]he confession must be perfectly voluntary: for if the least degree of influence appear to be exercised over the prisoner’s mind, to induce him to disclose his guilt, the whole will be rejected.’); 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1807) p. 357 (‘indeed, even in cases of felony at the common law, [confessions] are the weakest and most suspicious of all testimony; ever liable to be obtained by artifice, false hopes, promises of favor, or menaces; seldom remembered accurately, or reported with due precision; and incapable in their nature of being disproved by other negative evidence’).” State v. James, supra,
With respect to the specific commentary by Swift and Blackstone on which the defendant relied; see footnote 12 of this opinion; we noted that, “[t]hese authorities do not address directly the standard of proof on this issue. Furthermore, their advocacy of a stringent rule of exclusion appears to reflect a temporary expansion of the common-law rule during the early nineteenth century that was later rejected. According to Wigmore, the common-law exclusionary rule was initially quite narrow in scope, but underwent significant expansion by English judges, who, largely out of concern arising from the common-law rule prohibiting criminal defendants from testifying in their defense came to espouse mistrust of confessions and to apply the common-law evidentiary rule to require exclusion upon the finding of any conduct that qualified as an inducement, however slight. 3 J. Wigmore [Evidence (Chadbourne Rev. 1970)] §§ 820 and 820a, pp. 297-301 .... Wigmore suggested, however, that this formal, exacting approach to confession evidence constituted a distortion of the rule that was not justified by its true rationale — to keep false confessions from the jury — and that, once criminal defendants were permitted to testify in their own trials, it was proper in most cases to submit a confession to the jury. See [id.], §§ 820a and 820b, pp. 300-306. This court, in State v. Willis, [
The defendant concedes that the remaining Geisler factors, namely, federal precedent, Connecticut precedent and the text of the relevant constitutional provisions do not support the imposition of a higher burden of proof.
The defendant claims that this court improperly concluded in James that the jurisprudence of New Hampshire and Wisconsin fails to make clear whether their decisions are constitutionally based. State v. James, supra,
See Pmitt v. State,
See Ex parte Jackson,
We note that the methodology employed in these studies and, therefore, the reliability of the conclusions drawn, has met with profound criticism in the academic community. See P. Cassell, “The Guilty and the ‘Innocent’: An Examination of Alleged Cases of Wrongful Conviction from False Confessions,” 22 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Policy 523, 578, 583 (1999) (criticizing Leo and Ofshe’s reliance on secondary sources to establish defendant’s proven “ ‘innocence’ ” and noting that, of remaining proven false confession cases, all but one case involved individuals with serious mental illness).
We note that a defendant’s mental health bears upon his or her susceptibility to governmental coercion and, therefore, informs the voluntariness inquiiy. See Withrow v. Williams,
The dissenting opinion also states that, “[t]his court would not be the first to increase protection of criminal defendants under its state constitution in light of recent evidence of wrongful convictions.” See footnote 7 of the dissenting opinion. In support of this proposition, the dissenting opinion relies on State v. Dubose,
The defendant has failed to provide an independent analysis of his state constitutional claim and, accordingly, we decline to review it. See State v. Pierre,
The fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution, § 1, provides in relevant part: “No State shall . . . deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law . . . .”
Under State v. Golding, supra,
The trial court instructed the jury in relevant part as follows: “In this case, as in all criminal cases, the defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The presumption of innocence was with this defendant when he was first presented for trial in this case. He must be considered free of any bias or prejudice of burden arising out of the fact that he has been arrested. This continues with him through this trial unless and until such time as all the evidence produced here in the orderly conduct of the case, considered in the light of these instructions of law and deliberated upon by you in the jury room, satisfies you beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty.
“Thus the presumption of innocence alone is sufficient to acquit the defendant unless the jurors are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt after a careful and impartial consideration of all the evidence and facts in this case. If and when the presumption of innocence has been overcome by evidence proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of the crime charged, then it is the sworn duty of the jury to enforce the law and render such a verdict.
“Another general rule is the burden of proof. The burden to prove the defendant guilty of the crime or crimes with which he is charged is upon the state. The defendant does not have to prove his innocence. This means that the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt each and every element necessary to constitute the crime charged.”
Additionally, immediately following the challenged instruction, the trial court instructed the jury that, “[i]t is the sworn duty of the court and jurors to safeguard the right of persons charged with crimes by respecting the presumption of innocence which the law gives to every person so charged.
“Now, when you go into the jury room to deliberate on the evidence in this case, you should ask yourself this question, am I convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of the guilt of this particular accused as charged in the information or the lesser included offenses, if you have reached them in your deliberations. If you are so convinced, you will convict him. But if you have a reasonable doubt as to his guilt, you will give him the benefit of that doubt and find him not guilty.”
We note that the trial court instructed the jury in relevant part that, “[t]he law is made to protect society and persons whose guilt has not been established beyond a reasonable doubt and not to protect those whose guilt has been so established.” See footnote 23 of this opinion. In State v. Schiappa,
In Wilson, the defendant claimed that the trial court’s instruction to the jury that, “ ‘[t]he state is as much concerned in having an innocent person acquitted as in having a guilty person convicted’ State v. Wilson, supra,
The defendant also claims that “institutional” concerns necessitate reversal of the trial court’s judgment because “in order for [the Appellate Court’s suggestion in Wilson] to have any real meaning, it must be enforced.” We reject this claim. First, the defendant does not claim, and there is no evidence in the record to suggest, that the trial court intentionally disre
Concurrence Opinion
concurring. I agree with and join the majority opinion. For the reasons set forth therein, I am not persuaded that we should overrule our holding in State v. James,
I write separately only to underscore that, to the extent that false confessions have led to a number of wrongful convictions across the United States, our legislature is free to enact legislation requiring police to videotape confessions whenever it is reasonably feasible to do so. Although valid reasons may exist not to impose such a requirement on the police, there can be little doubt that recording confessions would dramatically reduce, if not eliminate, any possible likelihood of an erroneous conviction predicated on an involuntary confession. Indeed, videotaping confessions would greatly aid both the trial court and the jury in evaluating the voluntariness and, ultimately, the reliability of those confessions.
Moreover, as the dissent notes, it is apparent that the risk of a false confession is appreciably greater in cases of juveniles and persons with mental disabilities. Because children and mentally disabled persons are especially vulnerable to police overreaching — and because it appears that they also are more likely than others to confess falsely even in the absence of improper government coercion — videotaping confessions by such persons would serve an especially salutary purpose.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. As expressed in my concurring opinion in State v. James,
I appreciate that the doctrine of stare decisis “cautions courts to tread lightly into the world of overruling precedent.” State v. Miranda,
Indeed, it is well recognized that, in a “case involving] an interpretation of the Constitution . . . claims of stare decisis are at their weakest . . . where [the court’s] mistakes cannot be corrected by Congress.” Vieth v. Jubelirer,
Recent studies demonstrating the significant role of admissions of involuntary and false confessions in wrongful convictions in this country provide compelling evidence that our conclusion in James as to the admissibility of confessions fails to promote just verdicts. Therefore, stare decisis should not control our decision in this case.
There is, for example, a considerable and growing body of anecdotal evidence regarding wrongful convictions that has been exposed through recent DNA exonerations. According to one authoritative source, as of April 12, 2007, 198 wrongfully convicted persons have been exonerated though the use of postconviction DNA testing in the United States. See http:// innocenceproject.org/know (last visited April 12, 2007).
Indeed, in a survey attempting to analyze all exonerations in the United States between 1989 and 2003, researchers uncovered a total of 340 exonerations, in which 144 of those wrongly convicted persons were exonerated by DNA evidence and 196 were exonerated by other means. See S. Gross, K. Jacoby & D. Matheson et al., “Exonerations in the United States 1989 through 2003,” 95 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 523, 524 (Winter 2005).
In a 2003 study of wrongful homicide convictions in Illinois, which, like Connecticut, uses a preponderance voluntariness standard for admission of confessions, it was found that twenty-five out of forty-two wrongful murder convictions since 1970 were based on false confessions, fourteen of those cases involved confessions by the defendants themselves and eleven cases involved confessions principally by codefendants. R. Warden, “The Role of False Confessions in Illinois Wrongful Murder Convictions Since 1970,” Center on Wrongful Convictions, at http://www.law.northwestem. edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/FalseConfessions2.htm (last modified March 8, 2004). A 2004 study analyzed 125 “interrogation-induced false confessions that can be classified as ‘proven’ — that is, confessions that are indisputably false because at least one piece of dispositive evidence objectively establishes, beyond any doubt, that the confessor could not possibly have been the peipetrator of the crime.” S. Drizin & R. Leo, “The Problem of False Confessions in the Post-DNA World,” 82 N.C. L. Rev. 891, 925 (2004).
Given this overwhelming evidence regarding the acute problem of false confessions, I believe that we must reexamine whether the Connecticut constitution requires the state to prove the voluntariness of a defendant’s confession beyond a reasonable doubt.
I acknowledge that, strictly speaking, several of these factors weigh in favor of adhering to the federal constitutional standard. In my view, however, a reexamination of the factual and legal underpinnings of the federal precedent and this court’s decision in James, read in light of the sixth Geisler factor, demands that we adopt the reasonable doubt standard under our state constitution. Accordingly, I begin with a discussion of the reasoning of the cases from which the preponderance standard eventually emerged.
In 1964, the United States Supreme Court declared: “It is now axiomatic that a defendant in a criminal case is deprived of due process of law if his conviction is founded, in whole or in part, upon an involuntary confession, without regard for the truth or falsity of the confession . . . and even though there is ample evidence aside from the confession to support the conviction. . . . Equally clear is the defendant’s constitutional right at some stage in the proceedings to object to the use of the confession and to have a fair hearing and a reliable determination on the issue of voluntariness, a determination uninfluenced by the truth or falsity of the confession.” (Citations omitted.) Jackson v. Denno,
In Lego v. Twomey, supra,
The Lego court did not end its inquiry there. The court addressed a second contention, “that evidence offered against a defendant at a criminal trial and challenged on constitutional grounds must be determined admissible beyond a reasonable doubt in order to give adequate protection to those values that exclusionary rules are designed to serve.” Id., 487. The court acknowledged its decisions in Miranda v. Arizona,
In rejecting this claim, the Lego court explained: “[F]rom our experience [with the exclusionary rule] ... no substantial evidence has accumulated that federal rights have suffered from determining admissibility by a preponderance of the evidence. [The] [petitioner offers nothing to suggest that admissibility rulings have been unreliable or otherwise wanting in quality because not based on some higher standard. Without good cause, we are unwilling to expand currently applicable exclusionary rules by erecting additional barriers to placing truthful and probative evidence before state juries and by revising the standards applicable in collateral proceedings. Sound reason for moving further in this direction has not been offered here nor do we discern any at the present time. This is particularly true since the exclusionary rules are very much aimed at deterring lawless conduct by police and prosecution and it is very doubtful that escalating the prosecution’s burden of proof in [f]ourth and [f]ifth [a]mendment suppression hearings would be sufficiently productive in this respect to outweigh the public interest in placing probative evidence before juries for the purpose of arriving at truthful decisions about guilt or innocence.” (Emphasis added.) Id. Thus, even while rejecting the
The Supreme Court decided Lego in 1972, long before the use of DNA testing exposed the significant problem of wrongful conviction in the criminal justice system. In light of the substantial evidence uncovered regarding the considerable role of false confessions in this alarming and widespread phenomenon, it is reasonable to imagine that the Lego court would come to a different conclusion today. At the very least, the court would have to acknowledge and reconcile the evidence that we currently confront. Certainly, there is a distinction to be made between involuntary confessions and false confessions. The Lego court explicated that distinction thoroughly in its decision. See id., 482-87. As the court also recognized, however, the two issues are closely related. If the primary purpose of the voluntariness determination is to evaluate whether a defendant confessed of his or her own volition and to exclude all confessions that are involuntary, both true and false involuntary confessions would be identified as inadmis
As discussed previously in this dissent and reiterated by the majority in its opinion, this court has stated unequivocally that the constitutional standard in this state for determining the voluntariness of a confession is preponderance of the evidence. See State v. James, supra,
In light of the copious evidence of wrongful convictions and admission of false confessions in this countiy, the claim that admission of confessions should be divorced from any consideration of reliability is, at a minimum, socially irresponsible. Undeniably, many unreliable confessions have been admitted for consideration by triers of fact. The majority’s reiteration of the James court’s affirmation of its “confidence in the ability of juries to discern the proper weight to be afforded to conflicting evidence” regarding whether to credit a confession “and if so, whether it is sufficient with other evidence to demonstrate guilt beyond a reasonable doubt]”; id., 424; see p. 169 of the majority opinion; plainly has been discredited by several scholarly studies conducted subsequent to that case. Statistics have shown not only that juries are unable to identify false confessions, but that they regularly base their verdicts on such confessions despite other evidence pointing to innocence.
One recent study demonstrated that in a sample of thirty proven false confession cases, 73 percent of the defendants were convicted even in the absence of any physical or other significant credible evidence to corroborate the confession. See R. Leo & R. Ofshe, supra,
In its focus on “ ‘any incremental gains to be realized from imposing the higher reasonable doubt standard,’ ” the majority states that it believes that, in “ ‘the trial court’s resolution of conflicting testimony by police and the accused ... it is only in rare cases that the trial court might be convinced by a preponderance of the evidence that a confession is voluntary but nevertheless harbor a reasonable doubt about the same.’ ” See p. 167 of the majority opinion, quoting State v. James, supra,
Justice Brennan was all too accurate when he stated that “[t]riers of fact accord confessions such heavy weight in their determinations that the introduction of a confession makes the other aspects of a trial in court superfluous . . . .” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Colorado v. Connelly,
In the context of this case, the cost of the higher burden of proof does not outweigh the benefit to society. Although some voluntary and reliable confessions may be barred from introduction when there is doubt about their vohmtariness, the overall effect will be to hold police officers and prosecutors to the highest standard when prosecuting their cases for the state. It is difficult to fathom the argument against assuring the protection of our citizens from unduly coercive police tactics in interrogation,
Under the fourth prong of the Geisler analysis, we examine the approach of our sister states for guidance. While it is true that a majority of states follow the federal preponderance standard, a significant minority have chosen to require greater protection for criminal defendants under their state constitutions and utilize the reasonable doubt standard. In Commonwealth v. Tavares,
In addition, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York all utilize the reasonable doubt standard of proof for voluntariness. See, e.g., Pruitt v. State,
Although I am unaware of studies examining the connection between the admission of false confessions and
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
Article first, § 8, of the constitution of Connecticut provides in relevant part: “In all criminal prosecutions . . . [n]o person shall be compelled to give evidence against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law . . .
The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization that handles cases involving claims of actual innocence in which post-conviction DNA testing can yield conclusive proof of innocence or guilt and, through exposure of the causes of wrongful conviction, seeks to initiate criminal justice reform. See http://innocenceproject.org (last visited April 12, 2007).
See, e.g., S. Drizin & R. Leo, “The Problem of False Confessions in the Post-DNA World,” 82 N.C. L. Rev. 891, 955-56 (2004). According to the data collected to date by the Innocence Project; see footnote 2 of this opinion; Connecticut has had two wrongfully convicted persons exonerated through DNA testing, neither of whom falsely confessed. See http:// innocenceproject.org/Conten1/240.php (Mark Reid case profile) and http:// innocenceproject.org/Content/272.php (James Tillman case profile). According to another survey, two additional criminal defendants in Connecticut also were exonerated of the crimes for which they had been convicted: Rickey Hammond was exonerated through DNA evidence in 1992; and Lawrence J. Miller, Jr., was exonerated through other means in 1997. See S. Gross, K. Jacoby & D. Matheson et al., “Exonerations in the United States 1989 through 2003,” 95 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 523, 555 (Winter 2005). Disparities in such statistics are not uncommon, however, due to the difficulty in collecting comprehensive data from the various criminal justice institutions in the United States.
Although the survey is the most comprehensive available for that time period, the authors caution that it should not be considered exhaustive due to the fragmentation of the United States criminal justice system. S. Gross, K. Jacoby & D. Matheson et al., supra, 95 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 525.
The authors explain that their study included confessions that were proven false in four dispositive situations: when a person confessed to a
As compelling as the wrongful conviction statistic is, the authors of the 2004 survey note: “ [Virtually all false confessions result in some deprivation of the false confessor’s liberty. Some scholars have focused only on false confession cases leading to wrongful conviction, but this neglects the amount of harm the system imposes on those who are not convicted. Individuals who are coerced into falsely confessing but ultimately not convicted may still lose their freedom for extended periods of time and suffer a number of other significant corollary harms as well: the stigma of criminal accusation (particularly if the person has falsely confessed to serious crimes such as murder or rape), the ongoing damage to their personal and professional reputation (even if charges are dropped or the innocent defendant is eventually acquitted), loss of income, savings, a job or career (sometimes resulting in bankruptcy), and the emotional strain of being apart from one’s friends and family (which sometimes results in marital separation or divorce). To those innocents who suffer these uqjust fates, the assertion by some scholars that only false confessions leading to wrongful convictions should count for scholarly inquiry or public policy reform or that only false confessions leading to wrongful convictions impose any meaningful harm is obviously misguided and myopic, if not downright cruel.” S. Drizin & R. Leo, supra, 82 N.C. L. Rev. 949-50.
This court would not be the first to increase protection of criminal defendants under its state constitution in light of recent evidence of wrongful convictions. The Wisconsin Supreme Court revised and sharpened its rule for admission of impermissibly suggestive out-of-court identifications in light of recent evidence it found “impossible ... to ignore . . . strongly supporting] the conclusion that eyewitness misidentification is now the single greatest source of wrongful convictions in the United States . . . .” State v. Dubose,
Although Lego was the first case in which the Supreme Court explicitly addressed the standard of proof necessary for admission of confessions, notably, in Bram v. United States,
Although this conclusion properly states the position of the Supreme Court today, it was not always so. The earliest decisions addressing admissibility of out-of-court confessions under the fifth amendment; Bram v. United States,
See M. Gohara, “A Lie for a Lie: False Confessions and the Case for Reconsidering the Legality of Deceptive Interrogation Techniques,” 33 Fordham Urb. L. J. 791, 816 (March 2006) (“A number of critiques of the leading interrogation techniques . . . described the reasons that the use of deception and trickery during interrogations leads to false confessions. Most of these critiques describe the kinds of cost/benefit analyses suspects undertake before deciding to incriminate themselves, regardless of guilt or innocence. The critiques and related theories help illustrate the impact trickery and deception, particularly an exaggeration or misrepresentation of the existence or quantum of independent incriminating evidence, have on even innocent suspects.”); R. Ofshe & R. Leo, “The Decision to Confess Falsely: Rational Choice and Irrational Action,” 74 Denv. U. L. Rev. 979, 985 (1997) (“Psychological interrogation is effective at eliciting confessions because of a fundamental fact of human decision-making — people make optimizing choices given the alternatives they consider. Psychologically-based interrogation works effectively by controlling the alternatives a person considers and by influencing how these alternatives are understood. The techniques interrogators use have been selected to limit a person’s attention to certain issues, to manipulate his perceptions of his present situation, and to bias his evaluation of the choices before him. The techniques used to accomplish these manipulations are so effective that if misused they can result in decisions to confess from the guilty and innocent alike.”).
The majority cites an article in which one scholar criticizes the methodology of the study by Leo and Ofshe that formed the basis for this article. See P. Cassell, supra, 22 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Policy 526. Cassell’s main criticism of Leo and Ofshe is their reliance on secondary sources for factual information underpinning the claims of innocence in some of their case studies. See id., 525, 580. In support of his claim that “[e]ven among the fifteen ‘proven’ cases of wrongful conviction from false confession [cited in the Leo and Ofshe article], many are disputed”; id., 581; however, Cassell cites the opinions of the prosecutors, district attorneys, and state police who worked on these cases that those people whom they helped to prosecute were in fact guilty, despite the fact that two of those people were officially exonerated by DNA evidence. Id., 581-82. Though there may be dispute about the accuracy of the media in reporting details of crimes, it hardly can be argued that those people with a personal stake in winning convictions are less biased than the members of the media. For example, Steven Linscott had his conviction overturned twice before prosecutors submitted biological evidence to DNA testing that proved conclusively that he could not have been the source of the seminal fluid in the murder for which he was convicted, leading the prosecutors to decline to try him a third time. See http:// www.innocenceproject.org/Content/200.php. Earl Washington, who has an I.Q. of approximately sixty-nine and was questioned by police for two days before producing “confessions” to five different crimes, four of which were dismissed by the commonwealth of Virginia as being unreliable, eventually conclusively was excluded as the source of the seminal fluid in the capital murder for which he was convicted (based on the fifth “confession”), and received an absolute pardon from the governor of Virginia See http:// innocenceproject.org/Content/282.php. It is, therefore, difficult to imagine how the belief of the prosecutors in those cases that these men are in fact guilty has any bearing on their actual innocence.
See, e.g State v. Reynolds,
Indeed, legal scholars have argued against the efficacy and constitutionality of current police interrogation tactics, urging reform in this area. See generally M. Gohara, supra, 33 Fordham Urb. L.J. 791 (2006); R. Leo, S. Drizin & P. Neufeld et al., supra, 2006 Wis. L. Rev. 479.
Rhode Island has determined that its state constitution requires a heightened proof, clear and convincing evidence. See, e.g., State v. Forbes,