Cox v. State

1964 OK CR 71, 395 P.2d 954, 1964 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 223
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 8, 1964
DocketA-13368
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 1964 OK CR 71 (Cox v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cox v. State, 1964 OK CR 71, 395 P.2d 954, 1964 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 223 (Okla. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

*956 NIX, Judge.

Robert Dale Cox, hereinafter referred to as defendant was charged by information in the District Court of Cleveland County with Manslaughter First Degree. He was tried before a jury, found guilty, and sentenced to serve Four Years in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. His appeal was timely filed in this Court relying upon two assignments of error for reversal.

It was charged in the indictment that defendant, while engaged in the commission of a misdemeanor,, to wit: Driving While Under the Influence of Alcohol, did wrongfully become involved in a collision with another car resulting in the death of an infant child who was an occupant of the vehicle struck by defendant.

The testimony produced by the State was to the effect that defendant was intoxicated when the collision occurred.

Defendant contended that he attended a football game at Norman, then went to some friends house about 4:30 P.M., where he had dinner and one drink of scotch. He left there about 9:30, and went to a tavern and had one bottle of beer. Shortly after leaving the tavern, the wreck occurred. Defendant was taken from the scene of the wreck by ambulance to the Norman Municipal Hospital. While at the hospital, he was asked by officers if he would agree to a drunkometer test and later a blood test. Defendant gave his consent and both tests were given. The results were unfavorable to defendant’s case.

He was charged with Manslaughter, and before trial, defendant filed a Motion to Suppress the results of the two tests on the grounds he was suffering from a concussion at the time the tests were given, and therefore unable to give his consent. And further, that defendant was not under arrest at the time the tests were given. Defendant’s only contention of error is to the effect that the'trial judge erred in overruling his Motion to Suppress evidence as to the results of the two tests.

Though defendant contends the statements were inadmissible for the reason consent was not given, he fails to set forth the rationale upon which he bases his reasoning. He does not state whether the evidence of the “test results” constitute a violation of due process, or compelled him to produce evidence against himself contrary to the Bill of Rights, or come under the category of evidence obtained by illegal search and seizure.

He intimates he is proceeding under the theory that the evidence was the fruits of an illegal search and seizure as he argues that defendant was not under arrest at the time. A dissertation upon the subject wherein they discuss all theories — due process, self-incrimination, and illegal search and seizure — is to be found in the annotation to Roachin v. California, 25 A.L.R. 2nd Series beginning at page 1407. They list many cases from other jurisdictions dealing with the question of' evidence taken without consent of defendant and' which category of rationale is claimed to assert error.

This Court is of the opinion the results of a test such as blopd tests, drunko-meter, etc. taken involuntarily is inadmissible for the reason it constitutes a violation of the Bill of Rights of this State, Art. 2, § 21, which says, “No person shall be compelled to give evidence which will tend to incriminate him * * * ”. We believe this section of the Bill of Rights is broad enough to encompass more than just oral testimony. We quote from 16 Corpus Juris, page 566:

“The constitutions of the United States and of most of the states provide in somewhat varying language that no person accused of crime shall be compelled to be a witness, or to give evidence, against himself, and these provisions render inadmissible all evidence incriminating- accused and obtained from him by compulsion. The prototype of the guaranty is found in the maxim of the common law, Nemo tene- tur seipsum accusare, which was brought to America by our ancestors as a part of their birthright; and the privilege against self-incrimination has been *957 uniformly construed by the courts as giving- the citizen protection as broad as that afforded by the common law principle from which it is derived, both the federal and state constitutions being liberally construed to prevent compulsory self-incrimination. Compulsion is the keynote of the prohibition; and to render evidence inadmissable on the ground that defendant was compelled to produce it against himself, it must appear that such compulsion was used as to rob him of volition in the matter.” See also, 22 A C.J.S. Criminal Law § 649, p. S39.

The following is taken from 28 Ruling Case Law, Vol. 28, page 434, Sec. 20:

“The rights intended to be protected by the constitutional provision that no man accused of crime shall be compelled to be a witness against himself are so sacred, and the pressure toward their relaxation so great when the suspicion of guilt is strong and the evidence obscure, that it is the duty of courts liberally to construe the prohibition in favor of personal rights, and to refuse to permit any steps tending toward their invasion. Hence, there is the well established doctrine that the constitutional inhibition is directed not merely to the giving of oral testimony but embraces as well the furnishing of evidence by other means than by word of mouth, the divulging, in short, of any fact which the accused has a right to hold secret.”

This Court is in accord with the above language and as related in Apodaca v. State, 146 Tex.Cr.R. 593, (Tex.) 146 S.W.2d 381. Therefore, we find ourselves confronted with the task of determining whether or not the law as above stated is applicable in the case at bar.

Defendant presented only two witnesses in support of his motion to suppress. Dr. Robert Patskowsky, a duly licensed and practicing Osteopath Physician from Ard-more, testified he examined the defendant on Tuesday after the collision on Saturday. Said examination took place in the doctor’s office located in the city of Ardmore, Oklahoma. He also took a history of the case and testified as to his finding in the following manner:

“Defendant possessed a super orbital contusion and an infra orbital contusion of the right side, primarily of the infra orbital area with a slight laceration of abrasion of that area also. Upon opthalmic examination of the patient I did not find any blood in the interior chamber of the eyes but his lack of convergence struck me as a positive sign of the condition or diagnosis which I will give you later. He also had a contusion of the bridge of the nose, and he had dried blood in the nares and then going to the chest to the right pectoral area, he has a contusion I’d say of the size of a half dollar. His right hand, his thumb primarily, was swollen and quite tender and his left knee was swollen and motion of the knee was quite painful. On my neurology check of the patient which again would go back to the lack of convergence, he had very poor convergence. One sign which I felt was positive was Rombergs which was positive, otherwise his neurological work was, I’d say negative.

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Bluebook (online)
1964 OK CR 71, 395 P.2d 954, 1964 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cox-v-state-oklacrimapp-1964.