This is another DUI case requiring us to consider the meaning of the Georgia Constitution. In Miranda v. Arizona,
In 2017, we reiterated that the Georgia Constitution's right against compelled self-incrimination is broader in one sense than the similar right protected by the United States Constitution; the Georgia right prohibits the compulsion of incriminating acts and testimony, while the federal right prohibits only the compulsion of testimony. See Olevik v. State,
In Price v. State,
1. Facts .
The parties stipulated to the following facts. In March 2017, defendant Stephen Turnquest was involved in a single-vehicle accident. The responding officer arrested Turnquest for DUI. After arresting Turnquest and before asking him to submit to a breath test, the officer read the age-appropriate Georgia implied consent notice pursuant to OCGA § 40-5-67.1 (b) (2) but did not give Miranda warnings. Turnquest provided a breath sample.
Turnquest was charged with DUI less safe, DUI per se, and failure to maintain lane. He filed a motion to exclude the results of the breath test on essentially two grounds. First, Turnquest argued that Miranda warnings must precede a request to perform a chemical breath test because, as we held in Olevik, submitting to a breath test is an incriminating act that the right against compelled self-incrimination, secured by Article I, Section I, Paragraph XVI of the Georgia Constitution of 1983 ("Paragraph XVI"), prevents the State from compelling.
2. Miranda itself does not require suspects in custody to be warned of their constitutional rights before they are asked to submit to a breath test.
Although Turnquest argues that he was entitled to Miranda warnings, he cannot, and does not, rely on Miranda itself for his argument that the results of his breath test must be suppressed. Miranda provides - at least in part as a matter of "safeguard[ing] ... the privilege against self-incrimination" as embodied in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution - that the prosecution may not use any statements stemming from custodial interrogation of the defendant unless the defendant is first informed of certain rights.
3. Neither the Georgia Constitution nor OCGA § 24-5-506 requires suspects in custody to be warned of any constitutional rights before they are asked to submit to a breath test.
Turnquest's argument thus turns on whether some aspect of Georgia law requires law enforcement to give a suspect in custody Miranda-like warnings before asking the suspect to consent to a breath test. We consider several possible Georgia-law sources for such a requirement. Turnquest explicitly relies on Paragraph XVI in support of his argument that warnings were required. We also consider the due process provision of the Georgia Constitution, found at Article I, Section, I, Paragraph I of the Georgia Constitution of 1983 ("Paragraph I"), given that due process also is implicated in questions of whether incriminating statements or acts were constitutionally acquired by law enforcement and may be at least one basis for the Miranda rule. See Dickerson v. United States,
(a) Paragraph XVI does not require that a suspect be warned of his right against compelled self-incrimination or any other constitutional rights before being asked to submit to a breath test.
The Fifth Amendment provides that "[n]o person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself[.]" Finding that some compulsion is inherent whenever a suspect is being subjected to custodial interrogation, the United States Supreme Court in Miranda imposed a prophylactic rule that, before a suspect in custody can be questioned, he must be advised of certain constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent.
*870Elliott,
"[W]e interpret the Georgia Constitution according to its original public meaning." Elliott,
(i) Nothing in the language, history, and context of the 1877 Provision indicates that it required a suspect to be warned of his right against compelled self-incrimination or any other constitutional rights before being questioned or asked to perform an incriminating act.
The 1877 Provision provided, "No person shall be compelled to give testimony tending in any manner to criminate himself." Ga. Const. of 1877, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. VI.
The history and context of the 1877 Provision also do not support a conclusion that it requires custodial statements to be preceded by warnings of constitutional rights. "For context, we may look to the broader context in which [the] text was enacted, *871including other law - constitutional, statutory, decisional, and common law alike - that forms the legal background of the constitutional provision." Elliott,
Turnquest concedes that English common law did not require a suspect in custody to be warned of any constitutional rights. And we have found no evidence that English common law as of 1776 required as much. A practice of warning suspects of their rights before questioning apparently began to develop in England or the United States around the turn of the 19th century at the earliest. See Wesley MacNeil Oliver, Magistrates' Examinations, Police Interrogations, and Miranda-like Warnings in the Nineteenth Century,
To explain further: American magistrates conducted much of the questioning of arrestees until the mid-1800s, a pretrial procedure borrowed from British statutes. See Wesley MacNeil Oliver, The Neglected History of Criminal Procedure, 1850-1940,
More importantly, prior to Miranda, it does not appear that the failure to warn a suspect of his rights, without more, was widely considered a basis to exclude a statement. At least one leading 19th century treatise made clear that failure to give such warnings was not itself a basis to exclude the statement:
Neither is it necessary to the admissibility of any confession, to whomsoever it may have been made, that it should appear that the prisoner was warned that what he said would be used against him. On the contrary, if the confession was voluntary, it is sufficient, though it should appear that he was not so warned.
1 Simon Greenleaf, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence § 229 (11th ed. 1863) (emphasis in original); see also Leonard W. Levy, Origins of the Fifth Amendment: The Right Against Self-Incrimination 375 (1968) ("[A suspect] lacked the right to be warned that he need not answer, for the authorities were under no legal obligation to apprise him of that right. That reform did not come in England until Sir John Jervis's Act in 1848, and in the United States more than a century later the matter was still a subject of acute constitutional controversy."). Although at least one New York decision from the mid-1800s contained dicta suggesting that confessions made without proper caution of the right to remain silent are not admissible, that decision did not specify the source of such a rule. See O'Brien v. People,
In sum, there is no significant evidence from the common law as it was understood in 1776, Georgia law as of 1877, or the larger American legal context as of 1877 that the right to be free from compelled self-incrimination was understood to require suspects in custody to be warned of that right - or any other constitutional right - in order for their otherwise voluntary statements to be admissible. Nor have we found any evidence that in the years following adoption of the 1877 Provision that it was understood to require a suspect in custody to be warned of any constitutional rights in order for a confession to be admissible. Cf. Moore v. State,
*873Dunn v. State,
(ii) We find no consistent and definitive construction or other significant legal developments prior to the 1983 Constitution that changed the original public meaning of the 1877 Provision with respect to the necessity of warnings.
Of course, it is Paragraph XVI of the 1983 Constitution that is ultimately at issue in this case, not the 1877 Provision. But because the 1877 Provision was retained in the 1983 Constitution without material change, we presume absent a consistent and definitive construction or other significant developments to the contrary that Paragraph XVI carries the same meaning as that of the 1877 Provision. See Elliott,
It is certainly true that, well before the Miranda decision in 1966 and the adoption of the current Paragraph XVI in 1983, suspects in Georgia were at least occasionally warned of their right against compelled self-incrimination before being questioned. See, e.g., Russell v. State,
But the case law contains no indication - let alone a consistent and definitive construction - that such warnings were a constitutional prerequisite to admissibility of otherwise voluntary statements prior to the *874adoption of the 1983 Constitution.
(b) Paragraph I of the Georgia Constitution does not require suspects in custody to be warned of any constitutional rights before being asked to submit to a breath test.
Given Miranda's due process elements, we also consider, and reject, the possibility that Paragraph I requires suspects in custody to be warned of any constitutional rights before being asked to perform incriminating acts like submitting to a breath test. Paragraph I provides that "[n]o person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property except by due process of law." Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. I. Nothing in the plain language of that provision conditions admissibility of an incriminating statement or act by a suspect in custody on the suspect first being warned of his constitutional rights. And although we acknowledge that what process is "due" almost always has been determined from extratextual sources, nothing in the history or context of Georgia's adoption of that provision requires such an understanding, either. An express due process provision first entered the Georgia Constitution in 1861; the 1861 Constitution provided, "No citizen shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, except by due process of law; and of life or liberty, only by the judgment of his peers." Ga. Const. of 1861, Art. I, Par. IV. The 1865 Constitution replaced the word "citizen" with "person" and dropped the *875second clause. See Ga. Const. of 1865, Art. I, Par. II ("No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law."). A substantially identical version of this provision has been readopted in every Georgia Constitution since. Ga. Const. of 1868, Art. I, Sec. III ("No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law."); Ga. Const. of 1877, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. III (same); Ga. Const. of 1945, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. III (same); Ga. Const. of 1976, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. I (same); Ga. Const. of 1983, Art I, Sec. I, Par. I (same except without the final comma). As made clear from the discussion above, there is no significant evidence from either English common law as it was understood in 1776 or Georgia law or the broader American legal context of the 1860s that any right, let alone the due process right, was understood to require suspects in custody to receive any sort of warnings in order for their otherwise voluntary statements to be admissible. And although the federal context may have changed in 1966 by virtue of Miranda, nothing in the legal history leading up to the adoption of our current Paragraph I in 1983 indicates that our state constitutional due process right was understood by Georgians and Georgia courts to have changed in the same way. And so, if we interpret the Georgia right to due process independently of the federal right, no prophylactic warning would be required.
We recognize that "this Court has held in a number of other contexts that the process due under the United States Constitution and the Georgia Constitution is the same." Miller v. Deal,
But, of course, there is no decision of the United States Supreme Court holding that the federal Due Process Clause (or any other federal constitutional provision) requires Miranda warnings to precede a request for a breath test. So even if we were to interpret the Georgia due process right identically with federal interpretations of the federal due process right, Turnquest cannot prevail. And as we have already explained, a more careful analysis rooted not in federal case law but in Georgia text, history, and context shows no basis for any prophylactic warning requirement. Paragraph I does not require Miranda-style prophylactic warnings before law enforcement may ask persons in custody to submit to a breath test.
(c) OCGA § 24-5-506 (a) does not require that a suspect in custody be warned of any constitutional rights before being asked to submit to a breath test.
Although the trial court cited the precursor to OCGA § 24-5-506 (a) as at least one possible basis for requiring a warning to precede a request for consent to a breath test, that statute does not mandate the warning that Turnquest claims was required, either. OCGA § 24-5-506 (a) provides: "No person who is charged in any criminal proceeding with the commission of any criminal offense shall be compellable to give evidence for or against himself or herself." Nothing in the text of the statute requires a warning.
*876This statute's language, with minor variation, predates the 1877 Provision. See 1868 Code § 3798 (2); 1873 Code § 3854 (2); 1882 Code § 3854 (2); 1895 Penal Code § 1011 (2); 1910 Penal Code § 1037 (2); 1933 Code § 38-416; OCGA § 24-9-20 (a) (1973)
Thus, regardless of whether Turnquest is arguing that he is entitled to the same warning set forth in Miranda, or some alternative warning of the right against compelled self-incrimination specific to Georgia law, we conclude that neither the Georgia Constitution nor OCGA § 24-5-506 requires that a suspect in custody receive any such warning before being asked to perform a breath test. But that does not end our analysis. We must also consider whether principles of stare decisis warrant retaining the holding of Price v. State,
4. Principles of stare decisis do not warrant retaining the holding of Price.
As noted at the outset of this opinion, we held in Price that the failure to give a suspect in custody " Miranda warnings" rendered evidence regarding field sobriety tests inadmissible.
In support of that conclusion, we cited a decision of this Court in which we said that admission of the appellant's refusal to undergo an alco-sensor test
In support of our decision in Price, we also cited the Court of Appeals's decision in O'Donnell, which apparently held that former OCGA § 24-9-20 (not the Georgia Constitution) required a suspect in custody to be warned of his right against compelled self-incrimination before being asked to take field sobriety tests - notwithstanding a lack of textual or historical support for such a reading of the statute.
Whatever the specific basis for Price's holding, it is at odds with our conclusion that neither Georgia statutory nor constitutional law requires a Miranda warning or something like it in this context. Although Price's holding about field sobriety tests - which encompass a variety of tests with different characteristics, but not a breath test of the sort at issue here and in Olevik and Elliott- does not directly control the issue of whether the giving of Miranda warnings or something similar is a condition of admissibility of the results of a breath test performed by a suspect in custody, there is no principled basis for distinguishing Price's holding from the issue before us today. Thus, this case requires us to consider whether Price was rightly decided and, if not, whether we should nonetheless retain the rule as a matter of stare decisis.
Under the doctrine of stare decisis, courts generally stand by their prior decisions, because it promotes the evenhanded, predictable, and consistent development of legal principles, fosters reliance on judicial decisions, and contributes to the actual and perceived integrity of the judicial process. Stare decisis, however, is not an inexorable command. Courts, like individuals, but with more caution and deliberation, must sometimes reconsider what has been already carefully considered, and rectify their own mistakes. In reconsidering our prior decisions, we must balance the importance of having the question decided against the importance of having it decided right . To that end, we have developed a test that considers the age of precedent, the reliance interests at stake, the workability of the decision, and, most importantly, the soundness of its reasoning. The soundness of a precedent's reasoning is the most important factor.
Olevik,
For the reasons discussed above, the reasoning of Price was unsound, which is the most important stare decisis consideration, especially in constitutional cases. Although Price appears to be a decision of Georgia statutory law, Georgia constitutional law, or both, it contains no discussion of any particular Georgia statute or constitutional provision. Neither our opinion in Price nor any of the authorities on which it relies contain any analysis of whether the language, history, and context of the Georgia Constitution required Miranda warnings as a matter of Georgia constitutional law; when such analysis is actually done, it is plain that the Georgia Constitution requires no such thing in *878this context. And to the extent that Price was based on the former OCGA § 24-9-20, its holding has no basis in history or the text of that provision.
None of the remaining stare decisis factors indicate that we should retain this unfounded decision. On the age factor, we decided Price 21 years ago, and we have overruled decisions older than that. See Southall v. State,
Accordingly, we overrule Price and other Georgia appellate decisions to the extent that they hold that either OCGA § 24-5-506 (a) or the Georgia Constitution requires law enforcement to warn suspects in custody of their right to refuse to perform an incriminating act.
5. We remand for the trial court to consider Turnquest's alternative argument in the light of Elliott.
We vacate rather than reverse the trial court's ruling, because the trial court's resolution of the motion to suppress based on Price meant that it did not consider alternative arguments for suppression raised by Turnquest. In particular, the trial court did not rule on Turnquest's argument that his breath test results should be suppressed because the implied consent advisement provided to him was misleading in that it suggested that if he refused the test, that refusal could be used against him at trial and could affect his driving privileges. This argument implicates our decision in Elliott, which had not been decided at the time the trial court ruled on the motion to suppress. We therefore remand for the trial court to consider Turnquest's alternative argument for suppression in the light of Elliott.
Judgment vacated and case remanded.
All the Justices concur.
Notes
As in Olevik, the breath test at issue here requires the cooperation of the person being tested because a suspect must blow deeply into a breathalyzer for several seconds in order to produce an adequate sample. See Olevik,
Our current Paragraph XVI provides, "No person shall be compelled to give testimony tending in any manner to be self-incriminating." Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. XVI.
A dictionary more contemporaneous with the 1983 Constitution similarly defined "compel" as to "constrain" or "force" a person to do something. Webster's New World Dictionary 289 (2d College ed. 1980).
This acknowledgment seems at odds with the Miranda Court's attempt to root its ruling in the language of the Fifth Amendment, which like Paragraph XVI forbids self-incrimination only if "compelled," by insisting that because of the "compulsion inherent in custodial surroundings, no statement obtained from [a] defendant [in custody] can truly be the product of his free choice" absent the use of adequate prophylaxis such as Miranda warnings.
Consideration of warnings or lack thereof as part of whether a defendant's statement was voluntary under the totality of the circumstances was consistent with pre-Miranda federal case law. See Davis v. North Carolina,
In determining the original public meaning of a provision of the Georgia Constitution, we have considered legal developments both before the original adoption of a provision and in the period immediately following it. See Elliott,
We note that no party has pointed to any other such development.
We have explained that proper state constitutional interpretation requires careful analysis of the language, history, and context of the provision at issue. See Olevik,
Former OCGA § 24-9-20 (a) provided: "No person who is charged in any criminal proceeding with the commission of any indictable offense or any offense punishable on summary conviction shall be compellable to give evidence for or against himself."
We also note that we have said that the statute "applies only to those who have been charged with an offense - i.e., accused in a returned or proposed charging document - at the time they are called to testify." State v. Lampl,
We recognized the inapplicability of Miranda itself in Price, indicating that the appellant's challenges were based "on state law grounds[,]" and noting that "[a] defendant who raises only a federal law challenge will not succeed because under the U.S. Constitution the prohibition against self-incrimination applies only when the evidence is 'testimonial' and field sobriety tests are not 'testimonial' in nature."
An alco-sensor test, different from the test at issue in this case, is an initial screening device used to aid an officer in determining probable cause to arrest a motorist suspected of DUI. See Keenan,
None of this is to say that requiring warnings as Miranda does and Price did is a poor policy choice. It may be good policy. See Dickerson,
See, e.g., State v. Norris,
In this Court's only decision to have employed the language of Price, we concluded that the trial court did not err in denying the appellant's motion to suppress the results of his field sobriety tests, because he was not in custody at the time he was asked to undergo them. See Mitchell v. State,
