Atlanta defense lawyer wins appeal in murder case when the state supreme court finds his client's confession was not voluntary
The Supreme Court of Georgia recently suppressed the confession of a murder suspect after finding the confession to be involuntary. In particular, evidence suggested that the suspect had been beaten by police, shocked with a Taser, stripped naked and denied medical attention before he confessed to the murder.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has the story.
In State v. Lynch, the defendant, Lynch, was suspected of killing a man in DeKalb County and then driving the victim’s car to North Carolina. Officers in North Carolina spotted the car which resulted in a high speed police chase. Lynch was eventually taken into custody and later interviewed by detectives from DeKalb County which is when he confessed to the murder. However, before detectives from DeKalb County could interview Lynch and obtain the confession, Lynch claimed that he was assaulted and denied medical care.
At a pre-trial hearing to determine whether the confession was admissible, only Lynch and one detective from DeKalb testified. Lynch testified that he had been beaten, tasered, stripped of his clothes and denied medical attention until he gave a statement to police. Moreover, the detective who obtained the confession was impeached on the stand. The trial court ruled that a statement given to police under such circumstances was the product of duress and coercion and therefore involuntary and inadmissible. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the ruling.
Under Georgia law, involuntary confessions or statements made by a defendant are not admissible at trial. For a statement to be admissible, it must be made freely and voluntarily, without being induced by another by the slightest hope of benefit or remotest fear of injury. Furthermore, it is the state that must show that a confession is voluntary by a preponderance of the evidence. The trial court then makes a ruling based on the totality of the circumstances, and the trial court’s ruling will not be disturbed unless it was clearly erroneous.
The Supreme Court found that Lynch’s testimony and the fact that the detective was impeached on the stand supported the trial court’s ruling to suppress the confession. The Court further blasted the prosecution for not making a greater effort in determining what happened prior to the confession. Specifically, none of the North Carolina officers who arrested and detained Lynch ever testified as to what happened.
Our criminal lawyers have successfully won pretrial suppression hearings for many clients charged with serious crimes. As this case shows, statements made by suspects are often the product of promises, threats, manipulation or outright physical abuse. In our experience, there is almost always a question of whether such statements made to police are admissible at trial. A good criminal defense attorney will challenge the admissibility of a confession by investigating where and under what conditions the confession was given, how long the interrogation lasted, what promises were made, whether any forms of abuse were involved, whether the suspect was intoxicated or not in his or her right mind when the statement was made
Pate & Brody is an accomplished Georgia law firm with offices in Atlanta, Macon and Madison. Our lawyers are dedicated to pursuing justice for people charged with serious crimes. We have successfully represented clients facing serious federal criminal charges and state criminal charges in courts across Georgia. Our lawyers have been recognized on the list of Georgia's "Super Lawyers", and included among Georgia's "Legal Elite" by Georgia Trend Magazine. Page Pate was recently the Chairman of the Criminal Law Section of the Atlanta Bar Association.
