The Hawaii chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief to the Hawaii Supreme Court on April 4, urging the state to require law enforcement officers to record their questioning after they have taken a detained person into custody.
The brief offers
commentary on State v. Zuffante, involving Charles Zuffante, who was sentenced to 20 years to prison after a Hawaii County police officer testified that during an unrecorded interrogation, Zuffante had waived his
Miranda rights and confessed to drug trafficking.
ACLU Hawaii said in its brief that not recording the conversation was unfair and unconstitutional, filing its support of Zuffante nearly two weeks before the Hawaii Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on State v. Zuffante on Thursday at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
The case involves the unrecorded interrogation of Zuffante at a police station after he was arrested at a Kona traffic stop for possessing crystal methamphetamine in his pocket and vehicle.
According to the ACLU, the two officers who conducted the traffic stop were equipped with body-worn cameras and recorded the interaction. But when Zuffante was brought back to a police station, another officer interrogated him and did not record the session or take notes, ACLU said.
At Zuffante’s trial a year later, the officer testified that the defendant had
voluntarily waived his
Miranda rights and confessed to selling crystal methamphetamine.
As a result, a jury found Zuffante guilty of attempted promotion of a dangerous drug in the first degree, and the Circuit Court sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
With oral arguments of the case on the horizon, ACLU is asking the Hawaii Supreme Court to reconsider the 1994 decision in State v. Kekona that held that custodial interrogations do not need to be
recorded.
“In the ACLU’s view, that position is no longer tenable, especially when there is no emergency, given advances in technology, including the widespread adoption by police of body-worn cameras, and an evolving national consensus about what fundamental fairness demands,” the ACLU statement said.
In the brief, ACLU stated that at least 31 states have required the recording of certain custodial interrogations through rules or statutes.
“The legal and technological landscape has changed dramatically in the last three decades,” said Matthew
Segal, ACLU State Supreme Court Initiative co-director. “That’s why most states now require police to record certain custodial interrogations, either through statute or court decision. The time has come for Hawaii to join that growing consensus.”
ACLU Hawaii Legal Director Wookie Kim said that since every officer has a body camera and a cellphone, there’s “no excuse for failing to record a custodial interrogation.”
“We call upon the Court to uphold its long and proud tradition of ensuring fundamentally fair trials by adding this critical procedural safeguard,” Kim said.
The brief’s filing comes as Senate Bill 307, which would allow anyone to record the activity of law enforcement officers, died in the House in late March.
