Thiess v. State

Hammond, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Frederick O. Thiess was convicted by Judge Sodaro, sitting without a jury, of burglary and larceny of narcotics. He claims prejudicial error in the action of the court in allowing the State to reopen its case to offer new evidence, in admitting his confession without sufficient showing that in fact it had not been coerced by threats or induced by promises and because he had been denied due process when he was not permitted to call his lawyer until after he confessed. In the view we take of the case we do not reach the first two contentions since we think that the record makes the case before us indistinguishable from Haynes v. Washington, 373 U. S. 503 , 10 L. Ed. 2d 513 , and that it is, therefore, controlled by the holding of Haynes that refusal by the police of the prisoner’s requests to call his lawyer until he confessed made his confession not “the voluntary product of a free and unconstrained will, as required by the Fourteenth Amendment.” (p. 514 of 373 U. S.) Thiess was arrested at his home about three o’clock in the morning and, although the legality of the arrest is not questioned, apparently without a warrant, and, certainly, without a showing of probable cause. ⁵⁴³ Both Thiess and his father testified that the arresting officer promised to let Thiess call his father, who was sick, later in the morning from the station house.

Thiess says he was told at the time he could call his attorney when he got “downtown” (the Central Police Station). At the station, Thiess was interrogated and then put in a cell. He states he asked the turnkey five or ten times when he could call his father and his attorney and was told “you’re held for investigation, you’re not allowed to make a phone call until you are charged.” Thiess testified he asked Captain Carroll the next day to be allowed to call his attorney or his father, and that Captain Carroll just laughed and made no answer. Thiess says further that he made repeated requests all that day to call his lawyer, that he asked every officer he came in contact with, and that “all I kept hearing, when you make a statement and you are charged, you will be able to make a phone call.” The arresting officer denied saying at the Thiess home that Thiess would be allowed to make a call and said that