Darwin v. Connecticut, 391 U.S. 346 (1968)

391 U.S.
346
88 S.Ct. 1488
20 L.Ed.2d 630
Roy F. DARWIN
v.
CONNECTICUT.
No. 794, Misc.
Decided May 20, 1968.
John F. Shea, Jr., for petitioner.

Joel H. Reed II and Etalo G. Gnutti, for respondent.
PER CURIAM.
Petitioner was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life

imprisonment. The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed the judgment. 155
Conn. 124, 230 A.2d 573 (1967). Petitioner seeks a writ of certiorari from this
Court. We grant the writ and reverse.
On Friday, December 6, 1963, petitioner was arrested on a coroner's warrant

charging him with murder. During that entire day until 9 p.m. petitioner was
subjected to questioning. Some time that evening, the officer in charge brought
in a revolving disc and sought to persuade petitioner to look at it and 'relax.'
The trial judge said that '(the officer) was not completely unaware that this was
a common hypnotic device.' the wheel turned for about half an hour, but
petitioner refused to look at it.
The next morning the questioning resumed and continued intermittently until
about 4 p.m. when petitioner fell forward, according to the trial judge, 'either
fainting or pretending to faint.' He was revived and then confessed to the
murder, as hereinafter described, in response to questioning by the officer in
charge.
During the entire period petitioner was in custody, his counsel had been making
determined but unsuccessful efforts to contact him or the officer in charge of

him. On Friday, December 6, there were 19 phone calls to various police
offices, including nine to the one at which petitioner was held. On Saturday,
there were five calls, and on Sunday, there was one.
5
On Friday, there was a personal visit by one of the lawyers to the police
barracks in Stafford Springs where petitioner had been taken that morning. But
at about the same time that counsel arrived, the officer in charge took petitioner
from the barracks and drove him around, apparently to protect him from what
the officer thought were newspapermen.1 Counsel made four visits to various
barracks on Saturday.
Each of these attempts was met with disclaimers of knowledge of the

whereabouts of either petitioner or of the officer in charge. The trial judge
found that it was 'routine procedure' for investigating officers not to be
disturbed during an investigation. At about 1 or 1:30 p.m. Saturday, at counsel's
request, a superior court judge issued a writ of habeas corpus. A deputy sheriff
was instructed to serve the writ upon the officer in charge of petitioner and
upon the coroner within half an hour. The sheriff could not locate the officer or
the coroner, although the purpose of this inquiry was stated to the
communications officer at the Hartford barracks. On Sunday, the sheriff called
the Stafford Springs barracks in search of the officer and received a call
informing him that the officer would be at the superior court at 2 p.m.2
Petitioner's first confession, made orally after the 'fainting' incident on the
afternoon of Saturday, December 7, the second day of arrest and interrogation,
was excluded from evidence by the trial judge. The trial judge also excluded
petitioner's written confession made shortly thereafter. The trial judge,
however, admitted a subsequent written confession made on Sunday, December
8, and evidence as to a partial re-enactment of the crime which petitioner staged
on that day at the request of the police. During the course of this partial
reenactment, petitioner, as he had done intermittently during his custody,
denied that he committed the crime. The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed.
Since the trial in this case began before the decisions of this Court in Escobedo
v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964), and
Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694
(1966), these cases are not controlling. Johnson v. State of New Jersey, 384
U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966). But they are relevant on the
issue of voluntariness. Davis v. State of North Carolina, 384 U.S. 737, 86 S.Ct.
1761, 16 L.Ed.2d 895 (1966). In the present case, petitioner's lawyers made
numerous attempts to communicate with petitioner or with the officer in charge.
(Cf. Escobedo v. State of Illinois, supra, Miranda v. State of Arizona, supra,

384 U.S., at 465, n. 35, 86 S.Ct., at 1623.) A writ of habeas corpus issued by a
state judge at the request of petitioner's counsel was fruitless; and petitioner on
three separate occasions sought and was denied permission to communicate
with the outside world.
9
The inference is inescapable that the officers kept petitioner incommunicado

for the 30 to 48 hours during which they sought and finally obtained his
confession. See Davis v. State of North Carolina, supra, at 745746, 86 S.Ct.,
at 17661767; Haynes v. State of Washington, 373 U.S. 503, 83 S.Ct. 1336,
10 L.Ed.2d 513 (1963). Considering the 'totality of the circumstances' (see
Clewis v. State of Texas, 386 U.S. 707, 87 S.Ct. 1338, 18 L.Ed.2d 423 (1967)),
we conclude that the court erred in holding that the confession and the partial
re-enactment were voluntary. The denial of access to counsel and the outside
world continued throughout, and there was 'no break in the stream of events'
from arrest throughout the concededly invalid confessions of Saturday,
December 7, to the confession and re-enactment of Sunday, December 8,
'sufficient to insulate' the final events 'from the effect of all that went before.'
Clewis v. State of Texas, supra, at 710, 87 S.Ct., at 1340. See Beecher v.
Alabama, 389 U.S. 35, 36, n. 2, 88 S.Ct. 189, 190, 19 L.Ed.2d 35 (1967).
10
Accordingly, the motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis and the petition
for a writ of certiorari are granted. The judgment below is reversed and the case
remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with our decision herein.
11
Reversed and remanded.
12
Mr. Justice WHITE dissents.
13
Mr. Justice HARLAN, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
14
I am unable to agree with the basis on which the Court reverses petitioner's
conviction. The courts of the State of Connecticut conducted a careful and
conscientious review of the 'totality of the circumstances' surrounding
petitioner's three confessions. If the question in this case were simply whether
the third confession was 'coercively extracted, I would vote to affirm. I cannot
join the Court in what seems to me no more than a substitution of its view on a
close factual question for that of the state courts.
15
In this case, however, a special element is present. The trial court ruled that the
prosecution had not met its burden of proving that petitioner's first two
confessions were voluntarily made. It then admitted his third confession. The
Connecticut Supreme Court, affirming, evaluated petitioner's third confession
by the rules that had been applied to the other two; finding that the atmosphere
had changed enough to tip the balance in favor of voluntariness, it found this
confession admissible. I do not think this reflected a proper approach to the
problem of multiple confessions.
16
A principal reason why a suspect might make a second or third confession is

simply that, having already confessed once or twice, he might think he has little
to lose by repetition. If a first confession is not shown to be voluntary, I do not
think a later confession that is merely a direct product of the earlier one should
be held to be voluntary. It would be neither conducive to good police work, nor
fair to a suspect, to allow the erroneous impression that he has nothing to lose to
play the major role in a defendant's decision to speak a second or third time.
17
In consequence, when the prosecution seeks to use a confession uttered after an

earlier one not found to be voluntary, it has, in my view, the burden of proving
not only that the later confession was not itself the product of improper threats
or promises or coercive conditions, but also that it was not directly produced by
the existence of the earlier confession. See United States v. Bayer, 331 U.S.
532, 540541, 67 S.Ct. 1394, 13981399, 91 L.Ed. 1654. Here, the facts as
stated by the state courts fail to satisfy this additional burden. Petitioner's third
confession followed the completion of his inadmissible second confession by
only a few hours.* In the interval he appears to have talked to no one except his
jailors and the coroner. There is no indication that he had any reason to think
that a third confession would increase his peril. Since I would hold only that the
state courts applied the wrong standard in this case, I would remand for further
proceedings, in order to give the prosecution the opportunity to show that the
third confession was not merely the product of the erroneous impression that
the cat was already out of the bag.
When initially arrested, petitioner had asked to use the telephone but was not
permitted to do so.
The trial judge specifically found that the officer in charge knew petitioner was
represented by counsel at the coroner's inquest just one day before his arrest,
and that the officer called one of petitioner's lawyers on Sunday to inform him
that there would be a presentment at 2 p.m. The trial judge also found that the
officer did not know whether or not counsel were on a retainer basis or had
been engaged only for the inquest.
This Court indicates that the second confession occurred on Saturday and the
third on Sunday. In fact, petitioner completed his signature on the second
confession on Sunday morning and immediately thereafter agreed to re-enact
the crime. After the re-enactment he dictated the third confession and had
signed it by 1:50 Sunday afternoon. Although petitioner exhibited sporadic
hesitation, the events of Sunday, as described by the Supreme Court of
Connecticut, form a continuous sequence. The Connecticut courts rejected the
argument that the Sunday completion of the signature on the Saturday
confession was a 'voluntary' adoption of that statement.

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391 U.S.

John F. Shea, Jr., for petitioner.

Petitioner was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life

On Friday, December 6, 1963, petitioner was arrested on a coroner's warrant

determined but unsuccessful efforts to contact him or the officer in charge of

Each of these attempts was met with disclaimers of knowledge of the

(Cf. Escobedo v. State of Illinois, supra, Miranda v. State of Arizona, supra,

The inference is inescapable that the officers kept petitioner incommunicado

Reversed and remanded.

Mr. Justice WHITE dissents.

Mr. Justice HARLAN, concurring in part and dissenting in part.

A principal reason why a suspect might make a second or third confession is

In consequence, when the prosecution seeks to use a confession uttered after an

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