State v. Talsma

584 P.2d 145, 2 Kan. App. 2d 551, 1978 Kan. App. LEXIS 209
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedSeptember 15, 1978
DocketNo. 49,705
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 584 P.2d 145 (State v. Talsma) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Talsma, 584 P.2d 145, 2 Kan. App. 2d 551, 1978 Kan. App. LEXIS 209 (kanctapp 1978).

Opinion

Meyer, J.:

This is an appeal from a proceeding in which appellant was found guilty of indirect contempt for refusing to answer questions during a district attorney’s inquisition.

On June 8, 1977, appellant plead guilty to drug conspiracy charges and was sentenced. The prosecutor recited a plea agreement to the court. On October 10, 1977, the trial court modified appellant’s sentence, placing him on probation for five years. That same day, appellant was served with a subpoena to appear at a district attorney’s inquisition. The appellant and his attorney appeared at the district attorney’s office on November 9, 1977, pursuant to the subpoena. At this time appellant was given a grant of immunity, but, on counsel’s advice, refused to testify. The district attorney then contacted the trial judge by telephone, and the judge ordered appellant incarcerated overnight. The next morning, November 10, 1977, the trial court conducted a hearing on the matter of the inquisition. Appellant objected to being compelled to testify, stating that it was in violation of his plea agreement. The trial court found that the plea agreement was not violated by the inquisition and ordered appellant to appear at the district attorney’s office on November 14, 1977, to answer questions. Appellant was then released.

[552]*552On November 14,1977, appellant appeared with counsel at the district attorney’s office, but again refused to answer questions. The district attorney applied for a writ of attachment in contempt for appellant on November 16, 1977, and filed an accusation. The trial court gave appellant until November 28, 1977, to file an answer to the accusation, and set December 23, 1977, as a trial date for the contempt proceeding. Later the proceedings were continued to January 6, 1978, at which time the trial court found appellant guilty of indirect contempt of court and sentenced him to 90 days in jail or until such time as appellant elected to testify.

The appellant first contends that the inquisition was unconstitutional. The subpoena had never been filed with the court. Neither a judge nor a reporter was present at the inquisition. However, appellant did have advance notice and was represented by counsel. Therefore, we find that the inquisition was within the limits of K.S.A. 1977 Supp. 22-3101(2).

Appellant’s primary contention is that he had a right to refuse to answer the inquisition questions. He bases this argument on two grounds: (1) that he is entitled to his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself; and (2) that questioning him was in violation of his plea agreement.

As to the Fifth Amendment issue, appellant claims that the statute under which the district attorney granted him immunity would not protect him from prosecution by Arizona, Colorado, or the federal government.

We turn to federal law to see what that law is regarding prosecution in state courts other than the state where immunity was granted. In Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 12 L.Ed.2d 653, 84 S.Ct. 1489 (1964), the court said:

". . . 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.” (p. 8.)
“. . . The State urges, however, that the availability of the federal privilege to a witness in a state inquiry is to be determined according to a less stringent standard than is applicable in a federal proceeding. We disagree. We have held that the guarantees of the First Amendment . . . are all to be enforced against the States under the Fourteenth Amendment according to the same standards that protect those personal rights against federal encroachment. . . . (p. 10.)
[553]*553. . What is accorded is a privilege of refusing to incriminate one’s self, and the feared prosecution may be by either federal or state authorities.” (p. 11.)

Malloy v. Hogan, supra, does not directly meet the situation where one state has granted immunity and another state intends to compel self-incriminating testimony. However, in Murphy v. Waterfront Comm’n, 378 U.S. 52, 12 L.Ed.2d 678, 84 S.Ct. 1594 (1964), the court, at page 53, states:

“We have held today that the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination must be deemed fully applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment. Malloy v. Hogan, [supra]. This case presents a related issue: whether one jurisdiction within our federal structure may compel a witness, whom it has immunized from prosecution under its laws, to give testimony which might then be used to convict him of a crime against another such jurisdiction.”

At page 54, the court further states:

“Since a grant of immunity is valid only if it is coextensive with the scope of the privilege against self-incrimination, Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U.S. 547 [35 L.Ed. 1110, 12 S.Ct. 195], we must now decide the fundamental constitutional question of whether, absent an immunity provision, one jurisdiction in our federal structure may compel a witness to give testimony which might incriminate him under the laws of another jurisdiction. . . .”

At page 77, the Murphy court, after reflecting that the rule had been otherwise before, held as follows:

“The Court has today rejected that rule, and with it, all the earlier cases resting on that rule.
“The foregoing makes it clear that there is no continuing legal vitality to, or . historical justification for, the rule that one jurisdiction within our federal structure may compel a witness to give testimony which could be used to convict him of a crime in another jurisdiction.”

The high court then directly addressed the effect of their holding in Murphy on existing state immunity statutes as follows:

“We must now decide what effect this holding has on existing state immunity legislation. In Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U.S. 547 [35 L.Ed. 1110, 12 S.Ct. 195], this Court considered a federal statute which provided that no ‘evidence obtained from a party or witness by means of a judicial proceeding . . . shall be given in evidence, or in any manner used against him ... in any court of the United States. . . .’ Id., at 560.” (p. 78.)

Finally, in Murphy v. Waterfront Comm’n, supra, at pages 79-80, the court concludes:

“It follows that petitioners here may now be compelled to answer the questions propounded to them. At the time they refused to answer, however, petitioners had a reasonable fear, based on this Court’s decision in Feldman v. United States, [554]*554supra, that the federal authorities might use the answers against them in connection with a federal prosecution.

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932 P.2d 1023 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 1997)
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586 P.2d 65 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
584 P.2d 145, 2 Kan. App. 2d 551, 1978 Kan. App. LEXIS 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-talsma-kanctapp-1978.