Pr. George's cop botches Miranda rights in double murder, judge says
By: Alan Suderman
Examiner Staff Writer
October 9, 2009
A videotaped confession in a high-profile double murder can't be used as evidence because a Prince George's County police detective failed to clearly read a suspect his rights, according to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.
Terris T. Luckett, who has entered a plea of insanity, is set to go to trial in November in the murder of his wife and his son's football coach, both of whom he allegedly shot after thinking the pair was having an affair, according to court records.
But a hospital bed confession Luckett gave to Detective Matthew Barba can't be used as evidence in the trial, the appeal's court said, because Barba didn't adequately inform Luckett of his right to remain silent and to have a lawyer present for questioning, known as a Miranda warning. An appellate court judge called the omission a "textbook case" of police error.
Luckett was confined to a hospital bed at the time of the confession in August 2007 because he had tried to kill himself two days after the alleged murders by jumping in front of an outbound Green Line Metro train but instead wound up having both legs amputated.
"He was literally scraped off the Metro tracks," said Harry Trainor, his court-appointed attorney. The suicide attempt at the Southern Avenue Metro stop came after Luckett had unsuccessfully tried to kill himself by slitting his wrists.
Judge Charles Moylan Jr. wrote that Barba botched the Miranda warning in a number of ways, including telling Luckett that "you don't need a lawyer" for talking about things outside the case, like the Washington Redskins.
Moylan said Barba's advice was "affirmatively wrong" and the detective should have known that Luckett's defense team would likely plead insanity and anything he told police would be relevant to the case.
Moylan also took Barba to task for not answering Luckett's questions about whether giving a statement to the police would be "setting [himself] up?"
"Time and time again Detective Barba avoided giving a direct answer to [Luckett's] questions by answering some other questions that had not been asked," Moylan wrote. "It was the way political figures answer tough questions on Sunday morning talk shows."
The Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office is considering appealing the ruling to the Court of Appeals, said spokesman Ramon Korionoff.
He added that prosecutors were confident the loss of the videotaped confession wouldn't affect the ability to prosecute the case successfully.
