THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
ALLEN BECK, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1980-10-28
No. 80-420
Before HENDRY, SCHWARTZ and NESBITT, JJ.
390 So. 2d 748 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1980) Positive Treatment
Cited by 24 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Florida appeals the suppression of a defendant's four confessions to arson. The trial court suppressed the confessions based on alleged implied promises of psychiatric help, but the appellate court reversed, holding that non-particularized comments about medical assistance that are not offered as quid pro quo for confession do not invalidate a voluntary, Miranda-warned confession.


Holding

The court reversed the suppression order, holding that neither Slattery's nor Wagner's assurances constitute a basis for vitiating the confessions because neither promise was made as a means of inducing confession or in return for the confessions. Non-particularized comments concerning medical or psychiatric assistance that may be provided do not result in exclusion of a confession unless the aid is offered in return for the statement.


Headnotes

[1] A confession is not rendered inadmissible by statements concerning potential psychiatric help or evaluation if such aid is not offered in return for a confession.

[2] Statements made by law enforcement officers that are not explicitly conditioned on a confession do not render a subsequent confession inadmissible, even if the defendant…

Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“a confession should be excluded if the attending circumstances, or the declarations of those present at the making of the confession, are calculated to delude the prisoner as to his true position, or to exert improper and undue influence over his mind”

The established legal standard for when confessions must be suppressed due to improper police conduct or promises.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Beck was arrested for arson and given Miranda warnings on multiple occasions before confessing four times. A polygraph examiner, Slattery, told Beck t…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
SCHWARTZ, Judge.

SCHWARTZ, Judge.

The state appeals from an order suppressing the defendant’s four confessions to the crime of arson. It was undisputed that Beck had been given his Miranda warnings on several occasions before he confessed and that he had not been abused or overborne in any way. The basis of the ruling below, however, was that the confessions were the product of “implied promises” of psychiatric help and assistance. We reverse.

Since Beck prevailed, the record must be viewed in the light most favorable to him.1 Even doing so, we find nothing to support the order under review. The trial judge-and the defendant on appeal-have relied on two statements made to Beck during the course of his multiple confessions. The first was by a polygraph examiner, George Slattery, before Beck made his initial admission. Beck asked Slattery, in an apparently hypothetical fashion, “what would happen to someone if they had set the fires ... if they were sick ?” According to the defendant, Slattery answered as follows:

A: He said, ‘I’m not right in a position-I’m not a law officer,’ he said, ‘but if there’s something wrong with you,’ he said, ‘surely, the Court will look upon this and may give you some help.’

Q: How did you feel when Mr. Slattery told you that?

A: I believed what he said.

Q: What do you mean when you say, ‘you believed what he said,’ that he could get you help or that it would be taken into consideration?

A: He said they would get me some help, [emphasis supplied]

The other alleged promise was by an investigating officer, Sgt. Wagner, between the third and fourth confessions.2 On that occasion, he told Beck that “I would ask for [a psychiatric evaluation] if that’s what he wanted and he said he did.”

We hold that neither Slattery’s nor Wagner’s assurances to Beck constitute a basis for vitiating the confessions. This is the case because, even if the remarks may be considered as containing “promises” to the defendant, neither was made as a means of inducing or in return for the confessions which followed. In other words, Slattery and Wagner pointedly did not say that, if Beck confessed, they would get him help or a psychiatric evaluation; they said that they would do so if “someone” were sick, in the first instance, or if Beck desired it, in the second. It is established law that a confession should be excluded if the attending circumstances, or the declarations of those present at the making of the confession, are calculated to delude the prisoner as to his true position, or to exert improper and undue influence over his mind, [emphasis supplied]

Frazier v. State, 107 So. 2d 16, 21 (Fla.1958). See also, Blatch v. State, 389 So. 2d 669 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980). There is nothing in either remark made to Beck which qualifies under this rule. To the contrary, it is well-settled that non-particularized comments such as these concerning medical or psychiatric assistance which may be provided to the defendant do not result in the exclusion of a confession, so long as the aid is not offered in return for a consequent statement. DeCastro v. State, 359 So. 2d 551, 552 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978) (“appellant was not promised anything in return for his statement in this case . . . the promise of methadone treatment was not used as an inducement for him to confess.” [emphasis supplied]); Wade v. State, 204 So. 2d 235 (Fla. 2d DCA 1967); see, State v. Jones, 26 Ariz.App. 66, 546 P. 2d 43 (1976); State v. Creekmore, 208 Kan. 933, 495 P. 2d 96 (1972); People v. White, 63 A.D.2d 752, 404 N.Y.S.2d 894 (1978); cf. Presnell v. State, 241 Ga. 49, 243 S.E. 2d 496 (1978), rev’d on other grounds, 439 U.S. 14, 99 S.Ct. 235, 58 L.Ed.2d 207 (1978); State v. Miller, 76 N.J. 392, 388 A. 2d 218 (1978); Townes v. Commonwealth, 214 Va. 683, 204 S.E. 2d 269 (1974); contra, Tatum v. State, 585 S.W. 2d 957 (Ark.1979). The recent case of Slaten v. State, 367 So. 2d 562 (Ala.Cr.App.1978), writ denied, 367 So. 2d 569 (Ala.1979), is precisely on point. At 367 So. 2d 565-66, the court held:

[T]he only thing said by [the officer] that could be construed as an offer or promise to help pertained to his statement to the effect that he would ask or tell Mr. Bill Thornton of the Mental Health Department to confer with defendant. We are convinced that his statement to defendant did not constitute any offer or promise conditioned upon the incriminating statement or confession. We have no reason to discount the following in his testimony:
‘Q: You used the words I’ll help you, didn’t you, when you were talking to him, I’ll help you out?

A: No, sir, I told him that if he did do this something was wrong with him. I would get him some help.

Q: All right. Now, the help that you were talking about, you don’t know what he understood, do you?

A: I told him I would tell Bill Thornton of the Mental Health Department, I told him I would get him over there.

Q: You also told him you would help him, is that correct, Larry?

A: Yes, sir, that is correct.

Q: And then you talked about the Mental Health Clinic, is that correct?

A: No, sir, we were talking about the Mental Health Clinic when we were talking about helping him.

Q: Did you ever say these words, I will help you, if you will tell me what happened ?

A: No, sir.’ [emphasis supplied]

This case is thus in sharp and decisive contrast with those cited by the defendant, e. g., Lawton v. State, 152 Fla. 821, 13 So. 2d 211 (1943); Fillinger v. State, 349 So. 2d 714 (Fla. 2d DCA 1977), cert. denied, 374 So. 2d 101 (Fla.1979), in all of which the interrogator promised the defendant some benefit as a quid pro quo for the confession.

It is true that, although his written confessions recited that no promises had been made, Beck did state that the reason he confessed was that he thought, from “the way they were talking, that I would get the help I need.” Since, however, this motivation was not, as we have seen, induced by any improper threat or promise by anyone else, it cannot result in the suppression of the confessions.3 See, Barnason v. State, 371 So. 2d 680 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979), cert. denied, 381 So. 2d 764 (Fla. 1980). Instead, Beck’s statements must be regarded as stemming solely from his own self-induced desire to alleviate his mental illness and distress, and therefore as entirely voluntary and admissible. See, State v. Williams, 386 So. 2d 27 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980); State v. Baker, 4 Kan.App.2d 340, 606 P. 2d 120 (1980).

Reversed.

. Royer v. State, 389 So. 2d 1007 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980).

. Even if we found, as we do not, that the officer’s statement was an improper promise, the result would be to invalidate only the fourth confession which followed it. It obviously could have no effect on the preceding statements. State v. Knight, 324 So. 2d 169 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975).

. The situation involved in this case is essentially the same as one in which an officer, simply in the course of speaking to him, promises or gives the defendant a cigarette or a cup of coffee; surely, his subsequent contention that he confessed only in order to receive such a benefit-unjustified by the statements of the police-would not invalidate the confession. The result would be different, however, if the questioner told the defendant that he would be given an amenity only in return for a statement.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (13 total)

  • Black v. State, 630 So. 2d 609 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)
    …hasis added). Thus, in ruling the confession inadmissible, the Fil-linger court was emphasizing the initial concern of the case law which focused upon the possibility that a so-called confession could be false. The Third District, in State v. Beck, 390 So. 2d 748 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980), rev. denied, 399 So. 2d 1140 (Fla.1981), held that while promises may have been made to a defendant by police, the promises were not an inducement to confess. Citing cases from Florida as well as from other jurisdictions, the Bec…
  • Bridges v. State, 392 So. 2d 337 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. State v. Beck, 390 So. 2d 748 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980); State v. Mullin, 286 So. 2d 36 (Fla. 3d DCA 1973). Cross v. State, 378 So. 2d 114, 116 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980).…
  • la Rocca v. State, 401 So. 2d 866 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981)
    …n or have the effect of exerting improper and undue influence over his mind will be suppressed as the product of illegal psychological coercion. Brewer v. State, 386 So. 2d 232 (Fla. 1980); Frazier v. State, 107 So. 2d 16 (Fla. 1958); State v. Beck, 390 So. 2d 748 (Fla.3d DCA 1980). It is equally well established that where a mentally competent defendant has been given Miranda warnings and has not been placed in fear of material or physical harm, or given false inducements, his voluntary confession may prope…

Previewing 3 of 13 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited (11 total)

View all 11 cited authorities →

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw