State v. Kidd

375 A.2d 1105, 281 Md. 32, 1977 Md. LEXIS 570
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJuly 18, 1977
Docket[No. 154, September Term, 1976.]
StatusPublished
Cited by94 cases

This text of 375 A.2d 1105 (State v. Kidd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Kidd, 375 A.2d 1105, 281 Md. 32, 1977 Md. LEXIS 570 (Md. 1977).

Opinion

*34 Orth, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

I

In a criminal cause, when the prosecution introduces an extrajudicial confession or admission 1 given by the defendant to the authorities, the basic rule is that it must, upon proper challenge, establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the statement was obtained (1) voluntarily, and (2) in conformance with the dictates of Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U. S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602 (1966).

(1)

The first requisite is bottomed upon constitutional grounds. In Bram v. United States, 168 U. S. 532, 542, 18 S. Ct. 183 (1897), the Supreme Court of the United States declared: °

In criminal trials, in the courts of the United States, wherever a question arises whether a confession is incompetent because not voluntary, the issue is controlled by that portion of the fifth amendment to the constitution of the United States commanding that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”

Any doubt that the admissibility in a state criminal prosecution is tested by the same standard, applied in *35 federal prosecutions since 1897 under the .Bram holding, 2 **S.was laid to rest by Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U. S. 1, 84 S. Ct. 1489 (1964): “[T]he person must not have been compelled to incriminate himself.... Governments, state and federal, are thus constitutionally compelled to establish guilt by evidence independently and freely secured, and may not by coercion prove a charge against an accused out of his own mouth... . The Fourteenth Amendment secures against state invasion the same privilege that the Fifth Amendment guarantees against federal infringement — the right of a person to remain silent unless he chooses to speak in the unfettered exercise of his own will, and to suffer no penalty ... for such silence.” Id. at 7-8.

The imposition upon the state of the federal constitutional prohibition against compelled self-incrimination effected no change in the voluntariness requirement followed ■ by Maryland for the admissibility of confessions and admissions. More than a century ago, in Nicholson v. State, 38 Md. 141, 153 (1873) this Court said that “it is very clear upon all the authorities, that if the confession of the [accused] had been induced by any threat of harm, or promise of worldly advantage held out to him ... it ought to be excluded.” The crucial test was succinctly put in Taylor v. State, 238 Md. 424, 429, 209 A. 2d 595 (1965): “If freely and voluntarily given, it is admissible; if not, it is inadmissible.” For a statement to be the free and voluntary act of an accused, it must be obtained without force applied, coercion used, hope held out or promise made on the part of the *36 authorities. Abbott v. State, 231 Md. 462, 465, 190 A. 2d 797 (1963). In other words, a confession or admission is not “voluntary” if it is the product of physical or psychological coercion. This test has been referred to as voluntariness in the traditional sense, and we shall so refer to it here.

(2)

Miranda v. State of Arizona, supra, 384 U. S. at 478, expressly affirmed that “[a]ny statement given freely and voluntarily without any compelling influences is, of course, admissible in evidence.... Volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the Fifth Amendment. ...” The Supreme Court said in Davis v. State of North Carolina, 384 U. S. 737, 740, 86 S. Ct. 1761 (1966): “The review of voluntariness in cases in which the trial was held prior to our decisions in Escobedo [v. State of Illinois, 378 U. S. 478, 84 S. Ct. 1758 (1964)] and Miranda is not limited in any manner by these decisions [Davis and Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U. S. 719, 86 S. Ct. 1772 (1966) in which Miranda was held to be applied prospectively only].”

Miranda held:

the prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodial interrogation of the defendant unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the privilege against self-incrimination. 3 Id. at 444.

Thus, Miranda impressed procedural safeguards on the traditional test of voluntariness. The procedural safeguards are warnings to be given. They were expressly set out and explained in detail in Miranda, supra, 384 U. S. at 444 and 479, and their familiarity in the law makes it unnecessary to repeat them here. These warnings are not in themselves rights protected by the Constitution but are instead *37 measures to insure that the privilege against compulsory self-incrimination is protected. Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U. S. 433, 444, 94 S. Ct. 2357 (1974). Thus, they have no constitutional basis, but are prophylactic rules created by judicial decision to safeguard that constitutional privilege. Id. at 445-446. The defendant may waive effectuation of the Miranda safeguards, provided the waiver is made voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently, but until such warnings and waiver are demonstrated by the prosecution at trial, no evidence obtained through an interrogation can be used against him. Miranda v. State of Arizona, supra, 384 U. S. at 449 and 479.

As we have indicated, the burden is on the State of proving that a confession or admission is voluntary in the traditional sense and that there has been compliance with the Miranda safeguards. “It is now axiomatic that a defendant in a criminal case is deprived of due process of law if his conviction is founded, in whole or in part, upon an involuntary confession, without regard for the truth or falsity of the confession .... Equally clear is the defendant’s constitutional right at some stage in the proceedings to object to the use of the confession and to have a fair hearing and a reliable determination on the issue of voluntariness, a determination uninfluenced by the truth or falsity of the confession.” Jackson v. Denno, 378 U. S. 368, 376-377, 84 S. Ct. 1774 (1964). This determination must “appear from the record with unmistakable clarity.” Sims v. Georgia,

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Bluebook (online)
375 A.2d 1105, 281 Md. 32, 1977 Md. LEXIS 570, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kidd-md-1977.