Commonwealth v. Greene

65 Pa. D. & C.2d 376, 1974 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 549
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedFebruary 25, 1974
Docketno. 1161
StatusPublished

This text of 65 Pa. D. & C.2d 376 (Commonwealth v. Greene) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Greene, 65 Pa. D. & C.2d 376, 1974 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 549 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1974).

Opinion

BARBIERI, J.,

Defendant in this case, Oliver Greene, is an informer, turned confessor. He now stands charged with the murder of his wife’s sister. Presently before this court is the question of whether or not his inculpatory statements made to the police should be suppressed. Basically, defendant contends that the suppression he seeks should be granted under the unnecessary delay ruling expounded by the Supreme Court in the case of Commonwealth v. Futch, 447 Pa. 389, 290 A. 2d 417 (1972). The circumstances in this case are unique and, in the opinion of this court, take this case out of the Futch category.

The doctrine expounded in Futch has been characterized as a little McNabb-Mallory rule for Pennsylvania. Under this rule, all evidence obtained during unnecessary delay between arrest and arraignment must be excluded except that which has no reasonable relationship to the delay. As we read Futch and its progeny,1 Oliver Greene’s confession must be suppressed unless the delay after arrest and arraignment became legally permissible was necessary or there was no causal relationship between the delay and the confession.

The Futch rule derives from the interpretation by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania of its Rules of Criminal Procedure 116, 118 and 119. Rules 116 and 118 are concerned with preliminary arraignment of [378]*378arrested persons, respectively, with and without a warrant. Rule 118, applicable to this warrantless case, reads, in part:

“When a defendant has been arrested without a warrant, he shall be taken without unnecessary delay before the proper issuing authority where a complaint shall be filed against him.” (Italics supplied.)

The term “arrested” is emphasized in the above quotation because in this case, as will appear, a crucial question is as to when the arrest actually took place.

Rule 119 deals with the duties of the issuing authority with regard to arrestees brought before him. This includes detailed information required to be given to the accused including advice as to defendant’s right to secure counsel of his choice. For this reason, our Supreme Court has deemed it to be a denial of one of a defendant’s basic rights to unreasonably delay his opportunity for judicial advice at the arraignment. We see the Futch doctrine as one having to do with the use made of defendant’s time in custody following his arrest. When the delay in preliminary arraignment following arrest is (1) unreasonably prolonged, and (2) such unreasonable delay is causally related to inculpatory statements of defendant after arrest, it is presumed that defendant would not have made the statements after prompt Rule 119 advices by the issuing authority; and that, therefore, the statements should be suppressed.

Our Futch inquiry in this case requires that this court, as trier of factual issues on a suppression petition, make three factual determinations: (1) When did an arrest of defendant take place; (2) was there unnecessary delay between the time when defendant was “arrested” and the arraignment; and (3) was that delay, if it was unnecessary, in any way a causative factor in the obtaining of inculpatory statements made [379]*379by defendant to the police? In addition there is, as always, the question of voluntariness, quite aside from the delay. This form of coercion of the arrestee’s will which may itself render the confession and remarks vulnerable as a matter of law or in the eyes of the jury will be treated separately, later in this opinion.

Defendant’s meeting and experiences with the police are briefly as follows:

The stabbed and mutilated body of Adelaide Forbes, defendant’s sister-in-law, was found on April 21, 1972, at 11:30 a.m. She had been dead for some time. Defendant confessed to causing her death in a bizarre homicide during the morning of April 8, 1972, about two weeks before her body was found. On the day following the disclosure of her death, April 22, 1972, acting on the suggestion of defendant’s mother-in-law, the victim’s mother, defendant telephoned the police at 10:30 a.m. offering to give evidence as to who was the murderer of his wife’s sister. The police offered to send a vehicle for him, but defendant rejected the offer and stated that he would go to the Police Administration Building by transportation supplied by himself, which he did. As an informer, he sought to inculpate as the murderer one Jerry Cauthen, stating at some length to the police his reasons why Jerry should be considered as the murderer of his wife’s sister. He was questioned off and on without arrest until the forenoon of the following day, during which time the police were engaged in running down the leads supplied by defendant with regard to Jerry, principally seeking to find this accused man. They did not find Jerry Cauthen until the next day, Sunday, April 23, 1972. At 11:30 a.m. on that day, defendant, while resting alone after breakfast and a half-hour interview period, sent for the interviewer and spontaneously admitted the killing, On the twenty-second, however, because of defend[380]*380ant’s charges against Cauthen, in seeking to test the veracity of Greene, the police asked defendant if he would take a polygraph test. Defendant agreed, the test was carried out between 4 and 5 p.m., and the result showed positive reactions indicating untruthful answers to questions which cast doubt upon the accusations against Cauthen and suggested guilt on the part of defendant. The police advised defendant of this, and, at 9:45 p.m., defendant revealed that he had seen the body of decedent in a secret morning visit to her apartment on April 8, 1972, some 13 days before the police or any other person had knowledge of her death. The interrogating policeman, Detective McGowan, at this point became suspicious of defendant who previously had been given Miranda warnings. McGowan testified that he then felt that defendant should not have been permitted to leave at that time.2 He did not communicate this feeling to defendant, however, and conversations went on, with intervals for meals, personal comfort and rest, until defendant, as previously noted, spontaneously and not in response to questions, offered statements while in a rest period admitting that he killed his sister-in-law. This first inculpatory statement was made at a session between 11:30 a.m. and 12 noon on April 23, 1972. Defendant then rested for 50 minutes from 12 to 12:50 p.m. He was recorded as eating from 12:50 p.m. to 1 p.m. when a formal statement was made following renewed Miranda warnings. The statement was completed, read and signed by defendant by 2:30 p.m. Defendant rested until 4:15 p.m. when he was slated. He subsequently was taken to the cell room where processing [381]*381procedures were carried out until his arraignment at 8:30 p.m.

Due to the unique circumstances in this case, we hold that Greene was not subject to a coercive environment as a result of delay. While defendant may indeed have been under some pressure, if so, it was pressure generated by his own actions and conscience and not any product of police illegality. Therefore, we hold that defendant’s confession was not reasonably related to the unnecessary delay between arrest and arraignment.

Defendant also alleges that his confession was involuntary. The ultimate test of voluntariness is whether considering the totality of the circumstances, the confession is the product of an essentially free and unrestrained choice by its maker: Commonwealth v. Riggins, 451 Pa. 519, 524.

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Related

Commonwealth v. Dutton
307 A.2d 238 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1973)
Commonwealth v. Bennett
282 A.2d 276 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1971)
Commonwealth Ex Rel. Butler v. Rundle
239 A.2d 426 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1968)
Commonwealth v. Bishop
228 A.2d 661 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1967)
Commonwealth v. Tingle
301 A.2d 701 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1973)
Commonwealth v. Riggins
304 A.2d 473 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1973)
Commonwealth v. Wayman
309 A.2d 784 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1973)
Commonwealth v. Futch
290 A.2d 417 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
65 Pa. D. & C.2d 376, 1974 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-greene-pactcomplphilad-1974.