Shannon v. State

427 S.W.2d 26, 221 Tenn. 412, 25 McCanless 412, 1968 Tenn. LEXIS 525
Tennessee Supreme Court·Decided April 15, 1968·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Charles Edward Shannon was convicted of second degree murder, and his punishment fixed at not more than ten years in the penitentiary. He has appealed, assigning a number of errors, only one of which we notice: That by which he invokes the protection of Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), with respect to certain evidence introduced against him at the trial. Since this assignment of error is good, the discussion will be limited to it.

Sometime on the day of July 29,1966, possibly between 9:35 A.M., and 1:30 to 2:00 P.M., Mrs. Gfunnie E. Lasley was murdered at her home on Creen Pond Road in Daisy, Hamilton County, Tennessee. Death was caused by stab wounds and skull fractures.

Shannon, who lived with his mother in a house located 150 to 200 yards south of the deceased’s house, reported the homicide to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s office at 3:45 P.M. When the officers arrived, they found defendant at the scene. He was dressed in a sport shirt over a white T-shirt, a pair of trousers and shoes. Defendant was not taken immediately into custody by the police, who com[414] menced an investigation of the house where Mrs. Lasley had been killed. Later, thoroughly searching the Shannon house, they found no evidence incriminating Shannon in either search. Later that day Shannon was taken into custody and questioned, resulting* in a written statement in which he described his activities on the day of the murder, stating that the last time he saw deceased was on her front porch with a boy who had been doing some yard work for her. That he discovered Mrs. Lasley’s body, after he had gone over to her house for some purpose. That he had then called the police.

The police were unable to uncover any evidence connecting anyone with the crime from July 29 to August 15. No blood had been found on defendant’s clothes or any clothes in his house, or on any object in defendant’s house. Hair was clipped off of defendant’s head and arms, part of the heel of his shoe was taken, and these items were sent to the F.B.I. Laboratory along with some hair that had been clutched in the deceased’s hand, and the report from the laboratory on these items was negative. Later, a knife taken from defendant’s house was also sent off to the F.B.I. Laboratory, and a negative report was received on it. But before this knife was sent to the laboratory, on August 15, 1966, Detective Officers Chief Russell, F.B.I. Agent, Joe Hannah, and Officer Bill Chapman, took Shannon to a motel for interrogation. Shannon was approximately forty-three years old, an honorably discharged war veteran, who lived with his mother in her home. During his service in World War n, his leg was injured and after he was discharged it received another injury resulting in a bone infection which made it necessary to amputate the leg — the left leg — some four inches above the knee. Sometime later, [415] defendant virtually lost the nse of Ms other leg from a condition he described as a paralysis, and Buerger's Disease. Shannon stated he had had to leave school while in the fourth grade, because of a physical condition, and could not read or write, except to sign his name. He was unable to find and keep any regular employment and other than a small veteran’s pension had no income except from odd jobs. The record shows Shannon to be an alcoholic. When he was first questioned on August 29, he was on the verge of delirium tremens, a condition recognized by his questioners, who furnished him with whiskey to ward off such an attack.

After Shannon had been carried to the motel, although he at first declined, he was ultimately persuaded to submit to a lie detector test. After this test, Shannon was advised he had not passed it; that it showed that he had not answered truthfully certain questions asked Mm. After this, Shannon was interrogated by officers, with the questioning resulting in an alleged confession. At this time a typist was sent for, and the confession reduced to writing. According to the testimony of the typist it was necessary for the officer primarily in charge of taking the confession and having it reduced to writing, to prompt Shannon as to what he should say. The officer’s explanation as to this was that he was simply refreshing Shannon’s recollection as to facts Shannon had already orally confessed; in no way undertaking to supply any facts for Shannon.

After the confession had been reduced to writing and Shannon had signed it and it had been witnessed, Shannon was put in jail. It is pertinent to mention that Shannon was under interrogation for five or six hours and there is a question raised, whether he tried to get the officers to [416] give Mm whiskey, but this was denied by the interrogators. It is not denied, however, that Shannon was alone with his questioners, without counsel or friends.

After Shannon had been put in jail acting on information gotten at the interrogation, the law officer primarily in charge of his interrogation went again to Shannon’s mother’s home, where he took two knives. These he carried to the jail and showed to Shannon who, according to the testimony, made an incriminating statement with respect to one of the knives.

That evening, or the next morning, Shannon was taken from his cell and carried before an officer, the coordinator of the Detective Department, with thirty-one years experience in police work to be booked on a charge of murder. This officer, who testified that he was aware defendant had been charged with murder, and was of opinion he had waived his constitutional rights as guaranteed him by Miranda as he had seen the written waiver and had heard police officers talking to Shannon after the waiver was signed, testified that while he was booking Shannon, that he started off complaining of his health and of his leg giving him trouble. That he had been in jail and that he wasn’t “getting any help” and that he told Shannon he would go with him after he had fingerprinted him, ‘£ down there and see if I could get him sent to the hospital, is the way that it started out. ’ ’ This officer then testified Shannon told him, in substance, that he and Mrs. Lasley were talking, and that she made a remark about a woman he had lived with in Nashville as a common law wife, and that “he got all up in the air about it and when he came to she was on the floor dead, and he said she was like a mother to me and I had no reason in the world to kill that woman. ’ ’

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Shannon v. State, 427 S.W.2d 26, 221 Tenn. 412, 25 McCanless 412, 1968 Tenn. LEXIS 525 (Tenn. 1968).

427 S.W.2d 26 (Shannon v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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