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State v. Morrell

The state has the right to appeal an oral suppression order after a defendant's acquittal only when the transcript shows that the trial court refused the state request that the trial court reduce the order to writing.

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This appeal presents the question whether, in a criminal case, the State has the right to appeal from an oral order suppressing a statement given by the defendant to the police. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the State may appeal an oral order only under certain exceptional circumstances. Because those circumstances are not present in this case and because the appellee, Kenneth Morrell, has been acquitted by a jury, we dismiss the State’s appeal.1 1. The day before Morrell’s trial for murder was scheduled to begin, the trial court orally granted Morrell’s motion to suppress a statement he made to the police. The trial court, however, did not reduce the order to writing, and the transcript shows that the State did not request that the trial court do so. Although the State filed a notice of appeal from the oral ruling, the court proceeded with the trial over the State’s objection that it desired to appeal the oral order.2 Following the trial, a jury acquitted Morrell of murder. The State filed another notice of appeal from the judgment of acquittal, and the appeal from both notices of appeal is currently before this Court.

2. It is undisputed that the State has a right to appeal from an order granting a motion to suppress a defendant’s statement.3 However, it has been the rule of this State that an order is not appealable unless it is in writing.4 The circumstances of the present case, however, compel us to recognize that the foregoing rule cannot be absolute.

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