State v. Crump

834 S.W.2d 265, 1992 Tenn. LEXIS 358
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedMay 18, 1992
StatusPublished
Cited by108 cases

This text of 834 S.W.2d 265 (State v. Crump) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Crump, 834 S.W.2d 265, 1992 Tenn. LEXIS 358 (Tenn. 1992).

Opinions

OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

In this interlocutory appeal, we are asked to decide whether the defendant's confession was obtained in violation of his rights under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, § 9 of the Tennessee Constitution. Specifically, we are concerned with the effect of a police failure to scrupulously honor the defendant’s invocation of his Miranda right to silence upon the admissibility of the defendant’s later confession obtained after a re-warning of his Miranda rights. The trial court suppressed the confession; however, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed. We disagree and hold the confession is inadmissible for the reasons set forth below.

FACTUAL HISTORY

On September 27, 1988, between Noon and 1:00 p.m., the defendant, Melvin Crump, was arrested at a private Nashville residence. At the time of his arrest, Crump was wanted for escaping from a work detail for the Department of Corrections, where he had been serving time for burglary and second-degree murder. In addition, Crump was wanted as a suspect in the murder of Eliza Mae Smith on August 26, 1988, the day of Crump’s escape.

When he was arrested, Crump was handcuffed and placed in the front seat of Sergeant Robert Moore’s unmarked police car. ■While he was sitting in the car, Detective Grady Elam read Crump his Miranda rights and asked him if he understood them. Crump acknowledged that he understood his rights and indicated that he did not want an attorney.

Elam then asked, “Having these rights in mind, do you wish to talk to us now?” Regarding Crump’s answer, Elam testified:

I don’t remember exactly what he said. It was either, “I don’t have anything to say right now,” or “I don’t have anything to say.” I’m not sure exactly what the wording was, but he did not have anything to say to me.

Following Crump’s response, Detective Elam terminated his questioning of the defendant and informed him that he was under arrest for escaping from the state penitentiary. Elam also told the defendant that he was a suspect in the murder of Eliza Smith, a lady who lived down the street from the arrest scene. Crump responded to this information by stating that “I don’t know anything about that.”

While Detective Elam was occupied with Crump, other officials spent approximately 20 minutes investigating the scene by interviewing neighbors and searching the defendant’s room. During the course of this brief investigation, Sergeant Moore approached Detective Elam to inquire whether Crump had been advised of his rights, and Elam responded affirmatively. Although Moore denied asking or being told anything else, Detective Elam testified that he also told Sergeant Moore that Crump said he did not have anything to say.

After the investigation at the scene was concluded, the defendant was transported to the police station by Sergeant Moore and Detective Elam. At some point during the course of their 10-minute trip to the station, Sergeant Moore described to Elam his plan to take Crump on a ride through north Nashville to retrace his escape route, with [267]*267the hope of “learning] something that deals with the homicide.” Moore testified that he asked Crump if he would “mind riding with us back to the scene of where he had escaped,” and the defendant “said he didn’t have any problem with it.”

Upon arriving at the station approximately 30 minutes after giving Crump his first Miranda warnings, Detective Elam exited Moore’s vehicle and entered the station to begin the paperwork on Crump's arrest. Outside the station, Sergeant Moore met Detectives Mike Smith and Ed Moran, who had participated in the arrest, and asked them if they would accompany him and Crump on the ride. The detectives agreed and got in the back seat, while Crump rode handcuffed in the front with Sergeant Moore.

The officers began the 30 to 45-minute ride by driving out to the day care center in north Nashville where Crump had escaped from a prison work detail.1 From there, they proceeded to retrace the defendant’s escape route as he described it to the officers. During the course of the trip, Sergeant Moore testified that Crump seemed disinterested and even “nodded off” to sleep at one point.

When Crump’s directions took the officers within the vicinity of the Maxwell House Hotel, Sergeant Moore stopped the vehicle and asked Crump if he had stolen anything out of a car in the hotel parking lot. Crump responded by admitting that he had taken items from the car, but said he had later thrown them away. Then Sergeant Moore told Crump that the items stolen from the car were found at the scene of Eliza Smith’s murder. Moore testified that after he told him this, Crump just hung his head and it was obvious that an emotional change took place. Moore said that Crump’s mannerisms showed him that the officers suddenly had Crump's attention and that Crump knew the police were on to him.

Following his incriminating responses, Crump and the officers headed back to the station, where they arrived between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. When they arrived, Detective Elam noted that although Crump did not show signs of physical abuse, he did show signs of “mental abuse.” Detective Elam testified that Crump “looked like he was upset,” probably “just the emotion of being arrested.”

At the station, Crump was taken to an office and read his Miranda rights by Detective Smith.2 After signing a written waiver of his rights at 2:45 p.m., Crump gave a taped confession of how he strangled Eliza Mae Smith and removed $20 and change from her apartment on the day of his escape. Subsequently, Crump was escorted to booking by Sergeant Moore and thereafter taken before a magistrate at 3:30 p.m.

Following a suppression hearing, the trial court found that the defendant had invoked his constitutional right to remain silent when he told Detective Elam at the arrest scene that he did not have anything to say. The trial court then determined that the admissibility of any statement solicited by subsequent questioning would depend on whether the defendant’s invocation of the right to remain silent was “scrupulously honored” under Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 96 S.Ct. 321, 46 L.Ed.2d 313 (1975).

Applying this standard, the trial court found that Crump’s right to cut off questioning and remain silent was not “scrupulously honored,” and that both the oral statements made during the ride and the taped confession had to be suppressed. The trial court then granted the State’s [268]*268motion for an interlocutory appeal pursuant to Tenn.R.App.P. 9.

The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the trial court’s decision with respect to the taped confession, finding that the determination of whether the police “scrupulously honored” the defendant’s invocation of his right to remain silent is only the first prong of a two-prong analysis. The second prong of the analysis, according to the Court of Criminal Appeals, is whether the police violation was of constitutional dimension or merely a violation of Miranda’s prophylactic rules under Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 105 S.Ct. 1285, 84 L.Ed.2d 222 (1985).

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Bluebook (online)
834 S.W.2d 265, 1992 Tenn. LEXIS 358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-crump-tenn-1992.