STATE OF OREGON, Respondent on Review, v. GRANT SMITH, Petitioner on Review.
DC M3-44; CA A29648; SC S31395
In the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon
Argued and submitted March 7, 1985, reassigned March 4, affirmed September 16, 1986
301 Or. 681 | 725 P.2d 894
James E. Mountain, Jr., Solicitor General, Salem, argued the cause for respondent on review. With him on the response were Dave Frohnmayer, Attorney General, Thomas H. Denney, Assistant Attorney General, Stephen F. Peifer, Assistant Attorney General, and Ann F. Kelley, Assistant Attorney General, Salem.
John Daugirda, Deputy Public Defender, Salem, filed an Amicus Curiae brief on behalf of Oregon Public Defender.
John Henry Hingson III, Oregon City, filed an Amicus Curiae brief on behalf of Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
Jones, J., filed a concurring opinion.
Linde, J., filed a dissenting opinion joined by Lent, J.
The question is whether
Two deputy sheriffs responding to a report of a vehicle off the road observed defendant about 150 yards from the disabled vehicle. When defendant saw the deputies he began to run, but stumbled and fell. The deputies approached defendant and assisted him back to their patrol car. The deputies suspected that defendant had been drinking, but at that time did not connect him with the disabled vehicle or suspect him of any crime. Defendant denied owning the vehicle. He told the police that he and another person had been drinking behind a nearby warehouse.
The officers learned from their dispatcher that defendant owned the car. Defendant then admitted that he owned the car and that he had been driving it when it went off the road. He was then arrested, given Miranda warnings, and later made further incriminating statements.
At trial on the charge of driving while under the influence of intoxicants, defendant moved to suppress his statements to the officers, relying on both the federal and state constitutions. The motion to suppress was denied. The trial court found that defendant‘s initial responses were obtained during a field interrogation and that he was not “in custody” for the purposes of Miranda v. Arizona until he was arrested. The trial judge further found that defendant‘s incriminating statements were made voluntarily.
Defendant was convicted. He appealed, relying on
THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT IN OREGON
The State of Oregon has recognized that its citizens have the right to remain silent in various circumstances by virtue of two statutory schemes, the adoption of common-law rules, and a constitutional provision. That right is spelled out in the following:
ORS 135.070(1) provides that in a preliminary hearing the magistrate shall inform the defendant that he is not required to make a statement.ORS 136.425(1) provides that a confession or admission of a defendant “cannot be given in evidence against the defendant when it was made under the influence of fear produced by threats.”- State v. Wintzingerode, 9 Or 153, 163 (1881), held that the common-law rules governing the admissibility of confessions are in force in Oregon, including the rule that “confessions made by a prisoner while in custody, and induced by the influence of hope or fear, applied by a public officer having the prisoner in his charge” are not admissible in evidence.
Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution provides in part: “No person shall *** be compelled in any criminal prosecution to testify against himself.”
(1) The magistrate is required to inform the defendant at the preliminary hearing.
“When the defendant against whom an information has been filed in a preliminary proceeding appears before a magistrate on a charge of having committed a crime punishable as a felony, before any further proceedings are had the magistrate shall read to the defendant the information and shall inform the defendant:
(1) Of the defendant‘s right to the aid of counsel, that the defendant is not required to make a statement and that any statement made by the defendant may be used against the defendant.” (Emphasis added.)4
The following statutes are part of the statutory scheme:
“When the examination of the witnesses on the part of the state is closed, the magistrate shall inform the defendant that it is the right of the defendant to make a statement in relation to the charge against the defendant; that the statement is designed to enable the defendant, if the defendant sees fit, to
answer the charge and explain the facts alleged against the defendant; that the defendant is at liberty to waive making a statement; and that the waiver of the defendant cannot be used against the defendant on the trial.”
“The statement of the defendant shall be reduced to writing by the magistrate or under the direction of the magistrate and authenticated in the following form:
(a) It shall set forth that the defendant was informed of the rights of the defendant, as provided in
ORS 135.095 , and that after being so informed the defendant made the statement.”
“If the defendant waives the right of the defendant to make a statement, the magistrate shall make a memorandum thereof in the proceedings; but the fact of the waiver cannot be used against the defendant on the trial.”
“Evidence obtained directly or indirectly as a result of failure of a magistrate to comply with
ORS 135.070 shall not be admissible, over the objection of the defendant, in any court.”5
To the best of our knowledge, this court has never interpreted or applied
In State v. Hatcher, 29 Or 309, 44 P 584 (1896), overruled on other grounds by State v. McLean, 255 Or 464, 476, 468 P2d 521 (1970), the defendant was convicted of the crime of manslaughter. The defendant contended that the trial court committed error in admitting into evidence a written statement made by the defendant at the preliminary hearing. This court considered Hill‘s Code section 1594 (now
“* * * The introductory statement by the magistrate that ‘Defendant was informed of his right to make a statement, and proceeded as follows,’ would seem to imply that he was not informed of his right to waive making a statement, and
that such waiver could not be used against him. The statute, (Hill‘s Code, § 1594,) provides that ‘When the examination of the witnesses on the part of the state is closed, the magistrate must inform the defendant that it is his right to make a statement in relation to the charge against him; that the statement is designed to enable him, if he sees fit, to answer the charge, and explain the facts alleged against him; that he is at liberty to waive making a statement, and that his waiver cannot be used against him on the trial.’ The defendant not having been notified of this last clause by the magistrate, may have understood, when informed of his right to make a statement, that it was incumbent on him to make one, and that in doing so he was obeying a legal mandate, and not making a voluntary statement. The right to waive making such a statement implies that if one be made it is voluntary, and, therefore, admissible in evidence, but it cannot be regarded as being voluntarily made unless it appears that the accused was informed by the magistrate of his right to waive it, for if he made the statement under the belief that it was required of him by the magistrate it is inadmissible against him: State v. O‘Brien (Mont.), 43 Pac. 1091 [(1896)]. There is nothing in the record to show that the statement was voluntarily made by the defendant, and hence it could not be admitted in evidence over his objection.” 29 Or at 311-12.
In State v. Andrews, 35 Or 388, 58 P 765 (1899), the defendant was convicted of exhibiting obscene pictures. This court reversed the conviction because the names of the witnesses examined before the grand jury were not endorsed on the indictment. This court by way of dictum said:
“In view of another trial, it becomes important to consider some of the alleged errors which may be avoided thereat. Evidence was introduced at the trial which tended to show that the pictures alleged to have been exhibited by the defendant were contained in a nickel-in-the-slot machine. The court, over defendant‘s objection and exception, permitted evidence to be offered of what he said at his preliminary examination before the justice of the peace, tending to show his ownership of said pictures, without it being shown that he was cautioned as to his legal rights, or that such statements were voluntary. The organic law of the state provides that no person shall be compelled in any criminal prosecution to testify against himself (Const. Or. Art I, § 12); and our court, giving to this clause the liberal construction to which it is entitled, has held that, before the confessions of a defendant can be received in evidence in a criminal action, it must
appear that they were voluntarily made: State v. Moran, 15 Or. 262 (14 Pac. 419) [(1887)]. The transcript shows that the defendant * * * was present before the justice of the peace for examination on a criminal charge; and when the complaint was read, in the absence of his attorney, made statements which might tend to incriminate him. *** The defendant could have made a written statement in that court in explanation of the facts alleged against him, but before he could be bound thereby it must have appeared that he was informed of his rights by the magistrate: Hill‘s Ann. Laws, §§ 1594, 1598 [now ORS 135.095 and135.100(3)(a) ]; State v. Hatcher, 29 Or. 309 (44 Pac. 584) [(1896)]. The justice‘s court having no authority to try the defendant for the crime charged, his statements cannot be deemed a plea of guilty; nor are they in the nature of voluntary declarations against interest, made to an officer or person concerning the offense. But such statements were equivalent to testimony extorted from him when a prisoner at his preliminary examination. His situation rendered what he might then say concerning his guilt in the nature of a confession, and, there being no evidence that he was advised of his rights, or cautioned that any statement he should make might be urged against him in his subsequent trial, such confession was not voluntarily made, and the court erred in admitting it in evidence: [citations omitted].” 35 Or at 391-92.
In State v. Stevenson, 98 Or 285, 193 P 1030 (1920), the alleged confession which was received in evidence was made to the district attorney in his office and was not a part of the preliminary examination. This court held that if the confession was admissible in evidence, it was not because of the provisions of Section 1781, Lord‘s Oregon Laws (
State v. Hatcher, supra, State v. Andrews, supra, and State v. Stevenson, supra, can only be read to say that at a preliminary hearing the magistrate is required to give the defendant the statutory warnings. Those cases cannot be stretched or bootstrapped into holding that a police officer or other person is required to give an individual in custody similar warnings in an extra-judicial situation. It is true that
It is interesting to note that
(2) Statutory provision that confession is not admissible when induced by fear.
“A confession or admission of a defendant, whether in the course of judicial proceedings or otherwise, cannot be given in evidence against the defendant when it was made under the influence of fear produced by threats * * *.”
The original predecessor statute was enacted October 11, 1864. It was compiled in the Deady Code as Section 214 and provided:
“A confession of a defendant, whether in the course of judicial proceedings, or to a private person, cannot be given in evidence against him, when made under the influence of fear, produced by threats * * *.” General Laws of Oregon, ch 23, § 214, p 478 (Deady 1845-1864).
The statute was expanded by Oregon Laws 1957, chapter 567, section 1, to include the “confession or admission of a defendant.” (Emphasis added.)6
We know of no case that interprets or applies
(3) Common-law rules governing the admissibility of confessions.
In State v. Wintzingerode, 9 Or 153 (1881), this court was called upon to determine if the predecessor statute to
On appeal the defendant contended that both confessions should have been excluded. The state contended that under the statute (now
“* * * The statute purports only to extend to one class of confessions, viz.: Those induced by threats. It does not even mention the other class, to wit: Those induced by promises or intimations of favor from persons in authority and having the party confessing in their custody.
“These two classes are distinct and rest on different foundations; and we are not able to perceive how one class can be effectual by implication merely, from legislation which only affirms the principles of the common law as to the other class.
***** Upon the whole we are satisfied that our statute is wholly affirmative and that the common law rules, governing the admissibility of confessions are still in force in this state. ***** There seems to be no conflict among the numerous authorities as to the rule, that confessions made by a prisoner while in custody, and induced by the influence of hope or fear, applied by a public officer having the prisoner in his charge, are inadmissible in evidence against him.” 9 Or at 162-63.7
The conviction was reversed because there was no showing that the motives for the original confession to Officer Mead had ceased to operate when the second confession to Officer Cameron was given.
In the 100-plus years since it was decided, State v. Wintzingerode, supra, has become the case most cited in Oregon on the law of confessions. A line of cases has developed in which the common-law rules in conjunction with
In State v. Spanos, 66 Or 118, 120, 134 P 6 (1913), this court said:
“It is a fundamental rule of criminal law that a confession cannot be used against a defendant unless the prosecution can show its free and voluntary character, and that neither duress nor intimidation, hope nor inducement caused defendant to furnish such evidence against himself: State v. Wintzingerode, 9 Or. 153; [citations omitted].”
In 1947 this court in State v. Henderson, 182 Or 147, 173, 184 P2d 392 (1947), correctly summarized our previous caselaw:
“An extra-judicial confession is admissible in this State even though the officer to whom it was made did not inform the accused of his right to consult counsel, of his right to remain silent and of the fact that his declarations would be used against him: State v. Layton, [174 Or. 217, 148 P. (2d) 522 (1944)]; State v. Moore, 124 Or. 61, 262 P. 859 [(1928)]; and State v. Wilder, 98 Or. 130, 193 P. 444 [(1920)]. See also State v. Butchek, 121 Or. 141, 253 P. 367, 254 P. 805 [(1927)]; and, generally, see 22 C.J.S., Criminal Law, § 822, p. 1441, and 20 Am. Jur., Evidence, § 505, p. 435.”
Another of the fundamental rules is set out in State v. Ely, 237 Or 329, 332, 390 P2d 348 (1964):
“In this state, confessions and admissions are initially deemed to be involuntary. Before either can be received in evidence, the state has the burden of showing that it was voluntarily made, without the inducement of either fear or hope. ORS 136.540 [now
ORS 136.425 ]; [citations omitted].”
In State v. Nunn, 212 Or 546, 553, 321 P2d 356 (1958), Justice Kester writing for the court summarized some of the rules relevant to the admission of confessions:
“A confession is not inadmissible merely because the defendant is in custody (State v. Folkes, 174 Or 568, 580, 150 P2d 17, cert. den. 323 US 779 [(1944)]), nor uninformed of his rights (State v. Henderson, supra, 182 Or at 173, 184 P2d 392), nor unrepresented by counsel (State v. Layton, 174 Or 217, 231, 148 P2d 522, cert. den. 323 US 728 [(1944)]), nor because he was not taken promptly before a magistrate (State v. Leland, 190 Or 598, 627, 227 P2d 785 [(1951)], affirmed 343 US 790, 96 L Ed 1302, 72 S Ct 1002, reh. den. 344 US 848 [(1952)]), nor because the confession is made in answer to questions which are accusatory or which assume defendant‘s guilt (State v. Blodgett, 50 Or 329, 335, 92 P 820 [(1907)]; State v. Howard, [102 Or 431, 425, 203 P 311 (1921)]; State v. Henderson, supra, 182 Or at 173). * * *”8
Nunn continued:
“The test, so far as one can be formulated, is: ‘Was the inducement held out to the accused such as that there is any fair risk of a false confession, for the object of the rule is not to exclude a confession of the truth but to avoid the possibility of a confession of guilt from one who is in fact innocent.’ State v. Green, [128 Or 49, 62, 273 P 381 (1929)]; State v. Folkes, supra, 174 Or at 580; State v. Linn, [179 Or 499, 507, 173 P2d 305 (1946)].” 212 Or at 553.
(4)
The relevant portion of
“No person shall * * * be compelled in any criminal prosecution to testify against himself.”
Our cases have not always been consistent when considering this provision of the Oregon Constitution.
In State v. Andrews, supra, this court said:
“* * * The organic law of the state provides that no person shall be compelled in any criminal prosecution to testify against himself (Const. Or. Art. I, § 12); and our court, giving to this clause the liberal construction to which it is entitled, has held that, before the confessions of a defendant can be received in evidence in a criminal action, it must appear that they were voluntarily made: State v. Moran, 15 Or. 262 (14 Pac. 419) [(1887)]. * * *” 35 Or at 391.
In State v. Neely, 239 Or 487, 493-94, 395 P2d 557, 398 P2d 482 (1965), this court said:
“The Oregon decisions excluding involuntary confessions have based the exclusion upon common-law rules of evidence, codified into an Oregon statute. ORS 136.540. State v. Wintzingerode, 9 Or 153, 160-165 (1881). We have never held
that the Oregon constitutional prohibition against self-incrimination (Art I, § 12) was the basis of this exclusionary rule and we need not determine that issue at this time. Malloy v. Hogan, [378 US 1, 84 S Ct 1489, 12 L Ed 2d 653 (1964)], and Escobedo [v. Illinois, 378 US 478, 84 S Ct 1758, 12 L Ed 2d 977 (1964)], make the right to remain silent during a police interrogation a Fourteenth Amendment right derived from the Fifth Amendment of the Federal Constitution.”
In State v. Classen, 285 Or 221, 226, 590 P2d 1198 (1979), this court made the following observation:
“Evidence law has long provided for excluding certain evidence as a class when its questionable reliability vitiates the value of its possible truthfulness in the particular case, apart from any question of constitutional law. One familiar example is the exclusion of coerced confessions; others are the exclusion of evidence obtained by polygraph tests, hypnosis, or ‘truth drugs.’ See State v. Wintzingerode, 9 Or 153 (1881) (confessions obtained by promises or by threats); [citations omitted].”
In State v. Mendacino, 288 Or 231, 235-36, 603 P2d 1376 (1979), this court said:
“In Oregon, a confession is initially deemed involuntary. State v. Ely, 237 Or 329, 332, 390 P2d 348 (1964). Before a confession can be received in evidence, the state must show that it was voluntarily given, that is, made without inducement through fear or promises, direct or implied. Cf.,
ORS 136.425(1) . This has been the rule in Oregon for almost a century. See State v. Wintzingerode, 9 Or 153, 160-161 (1881). Cf., Bram v. United States, 168 US 532, 542-543, 18 S Ct 183, 42 L Ed 568 (1897). *** The Oregon Constitution embodies these principles by guaranteeing that no person shall be compelled in any criminal prosecution to testify against himself. Or Const. Art I, § 12. Cf., US Const., Amend. V.” (Emphasis added.)9
State v. Mendacino, supra, can be interpreted as
This brings us to State v. Mains, 295 Or 640, 669 P2d 1112 (1983), and State v. Sparklin, 296 Or 85, 672 P2d 1182 (1983), from which it could be inferred that this court has already adopted an Oregon Miranda rule. In fact, the Court of Appeals has so inferred in State v. Kell, 77 Or App 199, 712 P2d 827 (1986), and State v. Rowe, 79 Or App 801, 720 P2d 765 (1986).
In State v. Mains, supra, one of the issues was whether the defendant was entitled to Miranda-type warnings before he was examined by a state psychiatrist. We noted that the details of the Miranda warnings were regarded as a judicial means to effectuate the federal Fifth Amendment‘s guarantee against self-incrimination. We went on to elaborate:
“The Oregon Constitution similarly guarantees the right not to be compelled to testify against oneself in a criminal prosecution. Or Const, Art I, § 12. Like the United States Supreme Court, this court is called upon from time to time to specify the procedure by which a guarantee is to be effectuated. Such specifications are not the same as interpretations of the guarantee itself, that is to say, they may not always and in all settings be the only means toward its effectuation but may be adapted or replaced from time to time by decisions of this court or by legislation in the light of experience or changing circumstances. In the absence of legislation, we believe that the following are the relevant information and warnings required in the setting of a psychiatric examination of a defendant conducted on behalf of the state to guarantee the right not to be compelled to testify against oneself in a criminal prosecution under
Article I, Section 12, of the Oregon Constitution .” 295 Or at 645.
In State v. Sparklin, supra, the defendant was arrested in Lane County on a charge of forgery. The next morning he was arraigned and provided with an attorney. Later the same evening, without notice to the defendant‘s
This court, in considering the defendant‘s contentions, referred to and quoted a portion of the above quote from State v. Mains, supra. It is no surprise that the opinion in State v. Sparklin, supra, was written on the assumption that Mains had adopted Oregon Miranda warnings.10 We declined to give the alternative warnings proposed by the defendant on practical grounds. We commented: “At least as long as the text of the federal Miranda warnings remains the law, we think that the convenience of a single text exceeds any gain from improving that text.” Sparklin, 296 Or at 89. In the case at bar, defendant is not asking that the text of the Miranda warnings be changed. He is requesting that the Miranda warnings be given at a time earlier than required by the federal caselaw.
In State v. Sparklin, supra, we held that the defendant did not invoke his
We think that a fair reading of the above cases commencing with State v. Andrews, supra, through State v. Sparklin, supra, demonstrates that
Presently included in the common-law rule on voluntary confessions is the sub-rule that an extra-judicial confession is admissible even though the officer to whom it is made did not inform the accused of his right to consult counsel, of his right to remain silent and of the fact that his declarations would be used against him. State v. Henderson, supra. The tail goes with the hide, and the Henderson rule is a part of this court‘s interpretation and application of the right to remain silent guaranteed by
In 1983, prior to the publication of the decisions in State v. Mains, supra, and State v. Sparklin, supra, the law of this state did not require Oregon Miranda warnings. Mains and Sparklin merely assumed without deciding that the Oregon Constitution required warnings similar to those required in Miranda v. Arizona. Our prior caselaw, spanning more than a century, concerning the requirement of voluntary confessions and admissions was not considered or discussed.
CONCLUSION
If this court had a strong reason for doing so it could overrule the Henderson line of cases and require Miranda-type warnings to help ensure the guarantees of
In Miranda v. Arizona the United States Supreme Court elevated the required warnings to constitutional status through the application of the Fourteenth Amendment due process provision to the Fifth Amendment guarantee against compulsion. The warnings then were given constitutional status, the violation of which automatically resulted in suppression of the confession regardless of the underlying question of compulsion. Since the adoption of that court-made guarantee, the United States Supreme Court has seen fit to fashion “exceptions” to the requirement to ease the obviously inelastic proscription of the requirement. See, e.g., New York v. Quarles, 467 US 649, 104 S Ct 2626, 81 L Ed 2d 550 (1984); Oregon v. Elstad, 470 US 298, 105 S Ct 1285, 84 L Ed 2d 222 (1985).
It has been said that one reason for the Miranda v. Arizona decision was to negate the necessity for an ad hoc determination of voluntariness. History has shown the folly of this theory. First, a defendant remains free to contest the voluntariness of his confession even in cases where the warnings were given. Secondly, the horde of cases on this point suggests that the ad hoc inquiry of voluntariness has been replaced with the ad hoc (or, at least, the ever-shifting) determination of when the warnings must be given. See, e.g., Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 US 420, 104 S Ct 3138, 82 L Ed 2d 317 (1984). The federal shift has been to the judicially created battlefield of “custody,” with its subjective/objective components and the search for the ever-elusive “free-to-leave” standard. Raising the warning incantation to constitutional status has not seemed to lessen the litigation upon appeal. A WESTLAW search of reported decisions discloses over 3,300 federal court and over 10,000 state appellate court decisions, including 269 appellate court decisions from Oregon that have wrestled with Miranda v. Arizona.
“* * * The purposes of the safeguards prescribed by Miranda are to ensure that the police do not coerce or trick captive suspects into confessing, to relieve the ’ ‘inherently compelling pressures’ ’ generated by the custodial setting itself, ’ ‘which work to undermine the individual‘s will to resist,’ ’ and as much as possible to free courts from the task of scrutinizing individual cases to try to determine, after the fact, whether particular confessions were voluntary. * * *” 468 US at 433 (footnotes omitted; emphasis in original).
Miranda v. Arizona was more specific about one of the reasons for the warnings:
“* * * The use of physical brutality and violence is not, unfortunately, relegated to the past or to any part of the country. Only recently in Kings County, New York, the police brutally beat, kicked and placed lighted cigarette butts on the back of a potential witness under interrogation for the purpose of securing a statement incriminating a third party. People v. Portelli, 15 N.Y. 2d 235, 205 N.E. 2d 857, 257 N.Y.S. 2d 931 (1965).” 384 US at 446 (footnote omitted).
It is not the purpose of this opinion to argue with Miranda v. Arizona, but it made a mistake including Oregon within the “part of the country” where physical brutality and violence by the police exist. We have cases that show police misconduct. In State v. Mathiason, 275 Or 1, 549 P2d 673 (1976), the police falsely told the defendant that his fingerprints had been found at the scene of a burglary and within five minutes he confessed.11 In State v. Haynes, 288 Or 59, 602 P2d 272 (1979), cert den 446 US 945 (1980), the police removed the defendant from jail so that an attorney the defendant‘s wife had retained would be unable to see the defendant. In State v. Wolfe, 295 Or 567, 669 P2d 320 (1983), a police officer, armed with an arrest warrant, deliberately and purposefully tried to elicit incriminating answers from the defendant before arresting the defendant or giving him his Miranda warnings. In State v. Green, 128 Or 49, 273 P 381
No one has demonstrated to us how an Oregon Miranda rule would help eliminate police misconduct of the type set forth in the above examples. We do not understand how an Oregon rule identical to the federal rule would increase the chances to “relieve inherently compelling pressures generated by custodial settings which work to undermine the individual‘s will to resist.” If we adopted a different Oregon Miranda rule or placed a different interpretation upon the present federal rule, then we have created confusion. We doubt that the “task of scrutinizing individual cases to try to determine, whether particular confessions were voluntary” would have created a greater case load for the courts than the flood of cases in the last 20 years that have tried to determine the correct application of the federal Miranda warnings.
Oregon is in this situation: We have the federal Miranda warnings. By virtue of the
We know of no strong and compelling reason to overturn a long-standing precedent of this court in order to adopt a rule which we consider to be unnecessary and confusing under the present circumstances.
The Court of Appeals is affirmed.
JONES, J., concurring.
I write separately only to point out that in State v. Mains, 295 Or 640, 669 P2d 1112 (1983), this court, in discussing the necessity for warnings, was dealing with a case
In State v. Sparklin, 296 Or 85, 672 P2d 1182 (1983), again the defendant had been arraigned, had requested an attorney, was in full custody, had been given warnings as set forth in the Miranda case and had signed a waiver of his rights. The defendant in that case argued that the federal Miranda warnings were inadequate to protect his
Both Mains and Sparklin involved full custody interrogations—the type that most concerned Chief Justice Warren when he wrote the original Miranda opinion some 20 years ago. The present case involves statements that were made before any formal arrest, before any physical custody, before arraignment and before appointment of counsel. The specific holdings of Mains and Sparklin remain viable and are not affected by the plurality opinion in this case.
LINDE, J., dissenting.
Throughout its history, Oregon‘s Bill of Rights has guaranteed that no one may be compelled in any criminal prosecution to testify against himself.
The plurality opinion begins by stating the question to be whether the Oregon Constitution itself requires law enforcement officers to give prescribed warnings before interrogating a detained person. That loads the question, because the Constitution obviously does not mention warnings. But the Constitution forbids the state to prosecute upon “compelled” statements of the defendant. The question is how this guarantee is to be made effective. Like the legislature that adopted the Deady Code provision in 1864 and reenacted it in 1981, I believe that one obvious way to reduce the likelihood of “compelled” admissions or confessions is to tell suspects that they need not answer questions, that their answers may be used against them, and that they may consult counsel. Like the United States Supreme Court in applying the
I.
Only three years ago this court held warnings to be required in order to give effect to
“The Oregon Constitution similarly guarantees the right not to be compelled to testify against oneself in a criminal prosecution.
Or Const, Art I, § 12 . Like the United States Supreme Court, this court is called upon from time to time to specify the procedure by which a guarantee is to be effectuated. Such specifications are not the same as interpretations of the guarantee itself, that is to say, they may not always and
All but one member of the court joined in the Mains opinion; there was no dissent.3 Thereafter, the quoted paragraph was repeated and applied to police interrogation in State v. Sparklin, 296 Or 85, 88, 672 P2d 1182 (1983), in which the court went on to hold that the familiar federal Miranda formulation of the warnings also satisfied Oregon requirements. Again, there was no dissent.
Today, three members of the court would disown what the court wrote in Mains and Sparklin. The other three members of the court would stand by the principle there stated, although, as Justice Jones‘s concurring opinion shows, we disagree on its application to the facts in this case.
Judge Campbell‘s opinion for three judges, all of whom joined in Sparklin, attempts to dismiss Mains and Sparklin as “assuming” to require warnings to carry out
The plurality should not so readily denigrate its recent opinions as “assumptions” and “dicta.” I doubt that the court would welcome seeing a trial court or the Court of Appeals dismiss in that fashion a directive that is stated in the terms used in Mains. In fact, the Court of Appeals in this and in other cases correctly understood that Sparklin required cautionary warnings as a matter of state law; only the circumstances under which they are required was disputed. State v. Smith, 70 Or App 675, 680, 691 P2d 484 (1985); State v. Rowe, 79 Or App 801, 720 P2d 765 (1986); State v. Kell, 77 Or App 199, 712 P2d 827 (1986).
But I leave to members of the plurality whether it is more embarrassing to say that they did not mean what they wrote or joined in Mains and Sparklin, or that they did not know their own minds. Conceding that judges like other mortals may change their minds, the present decision on its own merits is a wrong and backward step.
II.
The plurality opinion begins by reciting the history of Oregon cases that dealt with the voluntariness of extrajudicial confessions. The common-law rule that an involuntary confession or admission must be excluded is not in dispute. That rule applies whether or not law enforcement officers caution a detained person before questioning. If the plurality wants to show that Oregon decisions did not hinge voluntariness on prior warnings, the recitals are needless; that, too, is not in dispute.
The issue, rather, is what the constitutional and statutory provisions add to common-law “voluntariness” in restraining official efforts to obtain incriminating information from a present or potential defendant. None of the quoted cases before State v. Mains, supra, decided that issue. It was not decided or even discussed in State v. Henderson, 182 Or 147, 183 P2d 392 (1947), or in State v. Nunn, 212 Or 546, 321 P2d 356 (1958), on which the plurality chiefly relies. As the
III.
Arguments about precedents can show the weakness of a judicial opinion, but to little effect. As I have said, a judge who thinks he was wrong may change his mind. Today‘s decision is wrong on its own merits.
The plurality itself treats its recital of the earlier cases only as a prologue to its conclusion. The conclusion does not purport to follow from the quoted opinions. Rather, the plurality‘s retreat from our 1983 opinions expressly rests on its rejection of a need for Miranda warnings in Oregon, at least at this time. The plurality singles out “police brutality” as the reason why Miranda warnings may once have been needed elsewhere but are not needed in Oregon today. If courts explain a rule of law as a deterrent to “police misconduct,” it is little wonder if law enforcement officers and some members of the public think that the judges are against the police. Nor are warnings before questioning simply a matter of judicial convenience, to be abandoned if they do not reduce the “case load,” as the plurality suggests. The practice of explaining a detained person‘s rights before questioning has a legal footing independent of any police misconduct or numbers of appeals.
As to the first argument, I do not know how the conduct of Oregon police officers compares with that of police officers elsewhere. The record before us contains nothing about that, nor should it. A rule should not be derived from
The plurality says that Oregon should be satisfied to return to the common-law rules governing the exclusions of “involuntary” confessions as they stood at the time of State v. Henderson, if the Supreme Court of the United States would let it. Henderson was decided almost 40 years ago. Under that standard, law enforcement officers could pursue their questioning of any person in their own way and in any setting, leaving it to later dispute and adjudication whether the answers were “voluntary.” It is hard to believe that this court in the 1980s would wish to return to the 1940s and 1950s and revive all the problems that led the United States Supreme Court 20 years ago to conclude that ad hoc determinations of voluntariness were inadequate to safeguard due process of law, let alone the rights to counsel and against self-incrimination.
No generation would choose to relive that history unless it has forgotten it. I shall not recount it in detail here. In sum, for 30 years after Brown v. Mississippi, 297 US 278, 56 S Ct 461, 80 L Ed 682 (1936), the Supreme Court granted certiorari in case after case to review convictions based on confessions to state officers. Some of the confessions, as in Brown, had been obtained by physical torture, some by long, uninterrupted questioning of an isolated prisoner by relays of officers, and some by playing on the inexperience and fear of
Because the Supreme Court had not then held the states to the express constitutional standards of the federal
The striking fact about the Supreme Court‘s cases under the “voluntariness” standard extolled by today‘s plurality opinion is that in each case a state trial court let a jury find that the defendant‘s confession was voluntary. In each case, a state appellate court affirmed that finding before the Supreme Court held that, on the undisputed facts, the confession was involuntary.
The plurality says that it is important to keep Oregon law on involuntary confessions and admissions intact. Of course it is. No one suggests that reading a suspect a statement of his rights does away with the rule against involuntary confessions or admissions. Obviously a suspect may still wrongfully be induced to confess by “hope or fear,” State v. Wintzingerode, 9 Or 153, 163 (1881), after the warnings have dutifully been read to him. But in Oregon, too, the fact is that despite repeated recitals of the rule, not once has this court actually found a confession “involuntary” by reason of the coercive pressures of police questioning, although a few cases have excluded confessions induced by promises of leniency.7 But the requirement of warnings, as I have said, has independent legal footing.
IV.
What
“The privilege against self-incrimination enjoined by the Fifth Amendment is not designed to enhance the reliability of the fact-finding determination; it stands in the Constitution for entirely independent reasons. Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U. S. 534, 540-541 (1961) (Involuntary confessions excluded ‘not because such confessions are unlikely to be true but because the methods used to extract them offend an underlying
Allen v. Illinois, ___ US ___, 106 S Ct 2988, 2995, 92 L Ed 2d 296, 308 (1986).
The present issue, then, concerns the role of cautionary warnings in giving effect to those guarantees. On this issue,
Of course the statutes do not expressly address police officers. If they did, this case would not be here. To the plurality, since the statutes do not mention investigative stages and officials other than magistrates’ hearings, they do not “apply” and are irrelevant. That narrow view of legislation long ago was criticized by Chief Justices Harlan F. Stone
The policy of the statutes clearly is independent of the common-law rule excluding “involuntary” confessions. Testimony elicited before a magistrate who has not cautioned the defendant (and evidence obtained thereby) “shall not be admissible, over the objection of the defendant,” no matter how voluntary the defendant‘s statements may have been. The statutory test for admitting a defendant‘s statements against him is not phrased in the terms of voluntariness alone
In view of these principles long ago adopted by the legislature, it cannot well be said that protection of the privilege against self-incrimination by requiring warnings before questioning does not accord with the public policy of this state. On the contrary, it is the state‘s public policy when a judicial officer rather than an executive officer becomes responsible. Rather than consider the statutes irrelevant, the court should ask why this public policy is negated simply by having the unwarned suspect incriminate himself under questioning by police officers before a magistrate belatedly explains his rights not to do so, and to have the assistance of counsel.
In today‘s structure of professional law enforcement, the statutory policy of protecting the privilege against self-incrimination and the right to counsel by warning against uninformed waiver requires those warnings earlier than when a defendant first is brought before a judge.9 I shall not argue at length at what stage of confrontation between an officer and the person being questioned the warnings should be required. I stated my own views on that issue in the setting of police investigation of drivers of stopped vehicles in State v. Roberti,
Justice Jones‘s concurring opinion in this case notes that the defendants in Mains and Sparklin were in custody, and he would confine the requirement of warnings before questioning to that situation. I do not believe that the words “formal” before “arrest” and “full” before “custody” are distinctive legal concepts, and factually they have no obvious bearing on whether police questioning is either designed or likely to be perceived as “compelling” a responsive answer. I believe that a rule addressed to public officers must describe the conditions in which it applies from the perspective of the officer who is to follow it. This does not mean warnings whenever an officer asks questions of bystanders or other witnesses. It means that the officer should give warnings corresponding to those prescribed by
To conclude, I have refrained from stating that
Today‘s plurality opinion would take Oregon back 40 years and overturn all that has been learned about the inadequacy of excluding “involuntary” confessions as a protection for the constitutional right against self-incrimination, if the United States Supreme Court did not bind Oregon to more civilized national standards than the plurality ascribes to our own laws. It is a reminder that, despite recent progress in many state courts, people in Oregon as elsewhere still need the protection of federal law for the basic liberties common to the national and the states’ bills of rights.10
Lent, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.
Notes
“When the defendant against whom an information has been filed in a preliminary proceeding appears before a magistrate on a charge of having committed a crime punishable as a felony, before any further proceedings are had the magistrate shall read to the defendant the information and shall inform the
defendant:
“(1) Of the defendant‘s right to the aid of counsel, that the defendant is not required to make a statement and that any statement made by the defendant may be used against the defendant.”
“Evidence obtained directly or indirectly as a result of failure of a magistrate to comply with
In a related development, the Supreme Court found a subconstitutional premise for limiting police questioning in federal prosecutions by excluding statements obtained after a defendant should have been brought before a magistrate. McNabb v. United States, 318 US 332, 63 S Ct 608, 87 L Ed 819 (1943); Mallory v. United States, 354 US 449, 77 S Ct 1356, 1 L Ed 2d 1479 (1957).
Voluntariness continues as an independent requirement of due process, both on the theory that “certain interrogation techniques, either in isolation, or as applied to the unique characteristics of a particular suspect, are so offensive to a civilized system of justice that they must be condemned under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Miller v. Fenton, 474 US ___, ___, 106 S Ct 445, 449, 88 L Ed 2d 405, 410 (1985), and as an element that a jury must be permitted to consider as bearing on the credibility of a confession. Crane v. Kentucky, 476 US ___, 106 S Ct 2142, 90 L Ed 2d 636 (1986).
Chief Justice Stone wrote 50 years ago:
“The reception which the courts have accorded to statutes presents a curiously illogical chapter in the history of the common law. Notwithstanding their genius for the generation of new law from that already established, the common-law courts have given little recognition to statutes as starting points for judicial lawmaking comparable to judicial decisions. They have long recognized the supremacy of statutes over judge-made law, but it has been the supremacy of a command to be obeyed according to its letter, to be treated as otherwise of little consequence. The fact that the command involves recognition of a policy by the supreme lawmaking body has seldom been regarded by courts as significant, either as a social datum or as a point of departure for the process of judicial reasoning by which the common law has been expanded.
“* * * * *
“* * * I can find in the history and principles of the common law no adequate reason for our failure to treat a statute much more as we treat a judicial precedent, as both a declaration and a source of law, and as a premise for legal reasoning. * * * Apart from its command, the social policy and judgment, expressed in legislation by the lawmaking agency which is supreme, would seem to merit that judicial recognition which is freely accorded to the like expression in judicial precedent. But only to a limited extent do modern courts feel free, by resort to standards of conduct set up by legislation, to impose liability or attach consequences for the failure to maintain those or similar standards in similar but not identical situations, or to make the statutory recognition of a new type of right the basis for the judicial creation of rights in circumstances not dissimilar.”
Stone, The Common Law in the United States, 50 Harv L Rev 4 (1936). See also Landis, Statutes and the Sources of Law, in Harvard Legal Essays 213 (1934); Traynor, Statutes Revolving in Common-Law Orbits, 17 Cath U L Rev 401 (1968).
Before development of organized police forces and full-time prosecutors, prosecutions were brought by private citizens and defendants were questioned for the first time when brought before a magistrate or justice of the peace. English magistrates were forbidden to interrogate an accused person by statute in 1848, shortly before Oregon required the warnings now found in
On the changes brought by the shift of administration of criminal justice, especially investigation, to executive institutions, i.e., police and prosecutors, and the consequences for the privilege against self-incrimination and the right to counsel, see generally Kamisar, Police Interrogation and Confessions 51-55 (1980); Note, An Historical Argument for the Right to Counsel During Police Interrogation, 73 Yale LJ 1000 (1964).
Justice Brennan recently told the American Bar Association:
“[W]e must not be beguiled with thinking that, because state supreme courts are increasingly evaluating their state constitutions and concluding that those constitutions should be applied to confer greater civil liberties than their federal counterparts, we can safely ignore the deterioration being worked on Fourteenth Amendment protections. We can and should welcome this development in state constitutional jurisprudence—indeed, my own view is that this rediscovery by state supreme courts of the broader protections afforded their own citizens by their state constitutions * * * is probably the most important development in constitutional jurisprudence of our times. * * *
“But this most welcome development does not mean that we can stop resisting cut-backs, particularly by the Supreme Court of the United States, of Fourteenth Amendment protections. One of the great strengths of our federal system is that it provides a double source of protection for the liberties of our citizens. Federalism is not served when the federal half of that protection is crippled.”
“The Fourteenth Amendment,” address by Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., American Bar Association Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities, New York University Law School (August 8, 1986). See also Cabranes, The Need for Continued Federal Protection of Individual Rights, 15 Conn L Rev 31 (1982).
The federal Miranda warnings have become a part of our culture. They have been widely discussed and quoted in all areas of our society. In some places the name of “Ernesto Miranda” is better known than the names of “Babe Ruth” and “Calvin Coolidge.”
In the event the United States Supreme Court retracts or retreats from the present Miranda warnings, Oregon might consider warnings similar to those set out in the English “Judges’ Rules.” Those rules were described by Justice Harlan in his
dissent in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US at 522:
“* * * In that country, a caution as to silence but not counsel has long been mandated by the ‘Judges’ Rules,’ which also place other somewhat imprecise limits on police cross-examination of suspects. However, in the court‘s discretion confessions can be and apparently quite frequently are admitted in evidence despite disregard of the Judges’ Rules, so long as they are found voluntary under the common-law test. * * *”
Warnings similar to the English “Judges’ Rules” would be consistent with Oregon‘s State v. Henderson, 182 Or 147, 184 P2d 392 (1947), line of cases.
