State v. Hopper

218 So. 2d 551, 253 La. 439, 1969 La. LEXIS 3172

• Court: Supreme Court of Louisiana
• Decided: January 20, 1969
• Docket: 48170
• Status: Published

Opinions

McCALEB, Justice.

This is a sequel to State of Louisiana v. John Hopper and Joe Woodard, 251 La. 77, 203 So.2d 222, wherein we affirmed defendants’ convictions of manslaughter and sentences to serve fifty months at hard labor in the state penitentiary on an indictment charging them with murder of Joseph Beeson. The matter is now before us pursuant to a decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, vacating said judgment and remanding the case to this Court “ * * * for further consideration in light of Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476, and Roberts v. Russell, 392 U.S. 293, 88 S.Ct. 1921, 20 L.Ed.2d 1100, decided June 10, 1968.” 392 U.S. 658, 88 S.Ct. 2281, 20 L.Ed.2d 1347.

Bruton was jointly charged and tried with one Evans in a federal district court for armed postal robbery, and both defendants were convicted by the jury. During the trial a postal inspector testified that Evans confessed to him that he and Bruton committed the robbery. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit set aside Evans’ conviction on the ground that his oral statement should not have been received in evidence because the police officers, to whom Evans had confessed prior to the giving of his statement to the postal inspector, had not given Evans preliminary warnings of any kind in compliance with the guidelines set forth in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, 10 A.L.R.3d 974. However, Bruton’s conviction was affirmed since the trial judge had instructed the jury that Evans’ confession was to be disregarded in determining Bruton’s guilt or innocence. The Supreme Court granted certiorari on application of Bruton and held that, despite instructions to the jury to disregard the implicating statement of Evans in determining the guilt or innocence of Bruton, admission at the joint trial of a codefendant’s extrajudicial confession violated Bruton’s right of cross-examination under the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.¹

The Bruton decision specifically overruled the Court’s 1957 holding in Delli Paoli v. United States, 352 U.S. 232, 77 S.Ct. 294, 1 L.Ed.2d 278, and was made retroactive thereafter in the Roberts case.

In the case at bar, Joe Woodard and John Hopper, 20 and 21 years of age respectively, were students at Louisiana Tech in Ruston. They had come to Marksville, along with two other students, where they secured a room at the Ranch House Motel upon their arrival, and then went to the Pelican Club on the Saturday night in question. Following the incident occurring at the Pelican Club which led to the instant prosecution, the two defendants were examined separately and orally confessed to the killing of Beeson. Major Henderson first questioned Woodard in the presence of Deputy Bordelon, Chief Dubea and with the District Attorney present during part of the questioning. Thereafter, Major Henderson questioned Hopper in the presence of the coroner, Dr. Kaufman, and Chief Dubea. Major Henderson took notes during the questioning, reducing the defendants’ oral confessions to writing in which each implicated the other in the act under investigation, as well as himself, but neither defendant signed the statements. These confessions are quoted in full in our original opinion. See State v. Hopper, 251 La. 77, 203 So.2d 222 at pages T03-111 of the Louisiana Reports and at pages 232-234 of the Southern Reporter.

Woodard’s statement was to the effect that he and his codefendant had been dancing and drinking at the Pelican Club, and while there, Beeson, the deceased, and a young man named Jimmy Nobles had a few words, the latter accusing Beeson of taking some of his whiskey. John Hopper saw Beeson pouring himself a drink from the fifth he had bought and told him not to drink his whiskey. When Hopper later saw Beeson take another drink, he became angry. Woodard then stated, “By the way they were acting I thought they were going out side to fight. They left where they were and started out side.” He and some others followed and saw Hopper and Bee-son “standing by the truck arguing like they were going to fight. * * * Just before I got there the deceased hit Johnny (Hopper) on the side of the head with a glass. I then ran up and grabbed the deceased. I was holding him and Johnny hit him once or twice while he was standing up. We then pushed him down between the concrete slab and the Truck. Then we both hit him 4 or 5 times each while he was down. Most of the blows landed on the head. I then kicked him on the side of the head. Johnny hit him a couple of times on the head after I kicked him. Then we saw a whole lot of blood on the concrete slab.” Upon observing the blood they ran to where the car was parked and immediately returned to the motel with their friends.

Hopper stated in substance that they had been drinking and dancing at the Pelican Club, and he noticed on one or two occasions when he returned to his table after dancing that some of his whiskey would be missing. There were two other boys at the table and, when Hopper and his friends got ready to go, these boys got up, all leaving together. Hopper stated further that, “One of the boys started talking as we walked out. We were leaning on one another. I mean the boy who turned out to be Beeson. We kept walking toward the outside and when we got outside I asked him if he had been getting any whiskey off the table. We stopped walking and started facing each other. I then heard some one coming up from behind. I turned around to see who it was then Beeson hit me on the left side of my head with a glass or bottle. I don’t know what it was. I automatically turned and started hitting him. I don’t know what all happen. I remember hitting him after he hit me with the glass. The next thing I remember he was down and I was hitting him in the face with my fist. When I got up Joe (Woodard) jumped back. I then said let’s go get in the car and get out of here.” They returned to their quarters at the Ranch House Motel where they were when the police arrived and Hopper hid in a closet “because I was scared.”

It is seen from the foregoing that this case is factually distinguishable from the Bruton case in that, here, both defendants recounted the happenings of the fatal night in substantially identical statements in which they admitted their guilt by reciting orally the occurrences of the affray before, during and after commission of the crime. The statements, which we have outlined above, reveal a joint assault and battery on Beeson allegedly precipitated by the latter’s abstraction of whiskey out of defendants’ bottle, which led to the fight assertedly commenced by Beeson striking Hopper when he turned around to see who was approaching him from behind. This culminated in the administration of blows by both defendants upon the person of Beeson who was struck down and beaten to death.

However, under the Bruton decision, the reciprocal incriminating statements herein, insofar as each confessor detailed the criminal conduct of the other, were hearsay and inadmissible against his codefendant at the joint trial despite the cautionary instructions of the judge to the jury to disregard the reciprocally implicating statements and, since neither defendant elected to take the witness stand, the confession of each implicating the other was a technical deprivation of the nonconfessor’s constitutional right to confrontation. Hence, it would be in order to reverse the convictions and remand the case for separate trials were it not for the all-important circumstance that each defendant voluntarily admitted in his separate statement the same criminal conduct recited in the statement of his codefendant.

When we view the case under the circumstances here presented, we find a technical violation of constitutional rights which, in our estimation, did not injure or prejudice either defendant before the jury in any significant way or deprive either of a fair trial. And that was all to which defendants were entitled. Lutwak v. United States, 344 U.S. 604, 73 S.Ct. 481, 97 L.Ed. 593. Even though the members of the jury might not have been able to disassociate each confessor’s inculpation of his codefendant in determining the latter’s guilt (notwithstanding the instructions by the judge), this caused no injury to the rights of each nonconfessor forasmuch as each nonconfessor had himself confessed and subscribed to the same criminal conduct related by the other defendant in his confession. In other words, it appears to us that it is an overplay of constitutional rights to an unrealistic proportion for each to plead denial of his right of cross-examination anent his activity on the fatal night when he admits in his own extrajudicial declaration the identical acts attributed to him in the hearsay statement. See United States ex rel. Catanzaro v. Mancusi, decided by the United States Court of Appelas for the Second Circuit on December 2, 1968, 404 F.2d 296.

Article 921, Code of Criminal Procedure, provides:

“A judgment or ruling shall not be reversed by any appellate court on any ground unless in the opinion of the court after an examination of the entire record, it appears that the error complained of has probably resulted in a miscarriage of justice, is prejudicial to the substantial rights of the accused, or constitutes a substantial violation of a constitutional or statutory right.” (Italics ours)

It is accordingly seen we are not required to reverse a judgment of conviction unless the trial error constitutes a substantial violation of a constitutional right or that the accused has otherwise been prejudiced. Here, as we have above stated, we are of the opinion that the deprivation of each defendant’s constitutional right was insubstantial and inconsequential factually since each defendant suffered no prejudice in view of his own incriminating admissions that the crime was committed in the same manner and under the same circumstances as stated by his codefendant.

Considering then this case in the light of the Bruton decision, as we are directed to do by the Supreme Court, we feel that the conclusion we have reached is in conformity with the basic principle on which that pronouncement is founded. For in holding that the Delli Paoli doctrine could no longer be followed in the context of cases like Bruton, the Supreme Court was concerned principally with the doubtful effectiveness of cautionary instructions by the judge to the jury that a codefendant’s confession inculpating the other codefendant had to be disregarded in determining the latter’s guilt or innocence. The Court noted that it had been recognized in Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908, 1 A.L.R.3d 1205, that there are some contexts in which the risk that the jury will not, or cannot, follow such cautionary instructions is so great “ * * * and the consequences of failure so vital to the defendant, that the practical and human limitations of the jury system cannot be ignored.” And, after proclaiming that such a context was presented in Bruton, where the incriminating extrajudicial statements of the codefendant standing side by side with the other accused are deliberately spread before the jury in a joint trial, the Court concluded that, “ * * * Despite the concededly clear instructions to the jury to disregard Evans’ inadmissible hearsay evidence inculpating petitioner, in the context of a joint trial we cannot accept limiting instructions as an adequate substitute for petitioner’s constitutional right of cross-examination.”

Here, however, in the context of the circumstances presented, we have the codefendants’ admissions standing side by side with each confessor acknowledging in his own confession the same criminal conduct ascribed to him by the other. The hearsay statements are corroborated by each codefendant’s extrajudicial statement or vice versa. Under such a situation, it is wholly unnecessary to speculate whether the cautionary instructions of the judge may not have effectively prevented the jury from disassociating each confessor’s inculpation of his codefendant in determining the latter’s guilt. For, as we see it, the hearsay caused no injury and did not deprive either defendant of a substantial constitutional right because, if each defendant had taken the stand, it is difficult to perceive what benefit either could have gained by cross-examining the other anent the same criminal conduct to which each had already voluntarily confessed extra-judicially,

We have assiduously examined this case from all aspects and are persuaded that the joint trial of the defendants has been fair in every respect. In fine, defendants have no defense; in concert they committed a vicious crime to which they separately and voluntarily confessed their guilt in detailed statements inculpating each other. Under the circumstances presented herein, we hold that the ruling in Bruton v. United States does not require that defendants’ convictions be reversed and a new trial granted.

For the reasons assigned, our original opinion affirming the convictions and sentences herein is reinstated as the final judgment of this Court.

1 . This Amendment, which provides in part: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right * * * to be confronted with the witnesses against him * * * ”, is made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment. Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S. 400, 85 S.Ct. 1065, 13 L.Ed.2d 923; Douglas v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 415, 85 S.Ct. 1074, 13 L.Ed.2d 934; and Roberts v. Russell, 392 U.S. 293, 88 S.Ct. 1921, 20 L.Ed.2d 1100.