Opinion ID: 511654
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Defendant's Invocation of His Right to Remain Silent

Text: 22 The defendant submits that he invoked his right to remain silent after receiving Miranda warnings from the detectives at the station. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 473-74, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1627-28, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Therefore, he argues, his responses to the detectives' questions, his consent to the search of his apartment, and his identification of the location where the party was and the witnesses subsequently found as a result of this identification should all have been suppressed. 2 The magistrate and the district court both found that the defendant had waived his right to remain silent. The question, essentially, is one of credibility, and the magistrate and the district court chose to credit the government witnesses' version of the event. [W]hether a defendant waived his or her Miranda rights is a fact question subject to the clearly erroneous standard. United States v. Hawkins, 823 F.2d 1020, 1022 (7th Cir.1987). 23 According to the testimony of Detectives Sippl and Couture, the defendant was immediately advised of his rights at the beginning of their meeting with him. The defendant acknowledged that he had been advised of those rights earlier in the morning by another officer. When the officers asked the defendant whether he understood his rights, he replied that he did. In response to the detectives' inquiry whether he would answer their questions, the defendant commented, as he had to Officer McLay, that he had already provided all the information he had. Detective Sippl responded that the detectives would have more detailed questions to ask than he had answered earlier. The defendant then answered the detectives' questions. Although the detectives would have been well advised to obtain an express written waiver from the defendant of his right to remain silent, their failure to do so, as the magistrate recognized, was not fatal. See North Carolina v. Butler, 441 U.S. 369, 373-75, 99 S.Ct. 1755, 1757-58, 60 L.Ed.2d 286 (1979). 24 The defendant asserts that, by stating that he had provided to the officers all of the information he had, he invoked his right to remain silent. Even an equivocal indication of the desire to remain silent can suffice to invoke Miranda's requirement that interrogation cease. See Miranda, 384 U.S. at 473-74, 86 S.Ct. at 1627-28; Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 100-01, 96 S.Ct. 321, 324-25, 46 L.Ed.2d 313 (1975); Christopher v. Florida, 824 F.2d 836, 841 (11th Cir.1987), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1057, 98 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1988). Officers may ask questions intended to clarify whether the suspect was attempting to invoke his right to remain silent. Id. at 842. They must refrain, however, from any words or actions that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect. Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1689, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980) (footnotes omitted). The line between clarification and interrogation is quite thin. Questions that burden the suspect in his attempt to assert his rights or attempt to wear down his resistance will not be considered permissible clarification. See Mosley, 423 U.S. at 105-06, 96 S.Ct. at 327-28. In determining whether questions are clarifying or interrogating, courts focus [ ] primarily upon the perceptions of the suspect. Innis, 446 U.S. at 301, 100 S.Ct. at 1689. 25 We do not believe that the defendant intended at that time to invoke his right to remain silent in this case. He merely stated that he believed that he had little more information to give the officers. Even had the defendant equivocally invoked his right, Detective Sippl's comment was merely clarifying for the defendant that the detectives may have had more detailed questions than the defendant had previously answered. The question was not coercive in any way. Although Sippl's response was a clarifying comment rather than a clarifying question, we think the purpose was clearly to ensure only that the defendant knew what the detectives were really asking him. The question did not burden the defendant's right to remain silent. 26 The defendant also contends that if he is found to have waived his right to remain silent, his waiver was not voluntary. We view the question of voluntariness, a question of law, in light of the totality of the circumstances; no single criterion is controlling. Miller v. Fenton, 474 U.S. 104, 110, 106 S.Ct. 445, 449, 88 L.Ed.2d 405 (1985); Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 226, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2047, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973). The government has the burden to establish that the defendant's waiver was knowing and voluntary, and it must carry this burden by a preponderance of the evidence. Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 107 S.Ct. 515, 523, 93 L.Ed.2d 473 (1986). 27 Again, we note that it would be helpful if the police had asked the defendant to sign a waiver form. Although the existence or absence of a waiver form is not dispositive, it can be useful in demonstrating voluntariness. Based on the record from the suppression hearing, however, we find that the government carried its burden of demonstrating that the defendant's waiver of his right to remain silent was voluntary. 28 The record contains no evidence of threats or other coercive conduct on the part of the police. The defendant argues that coercion is demonstrated by examining the factors outlined by the Supreme Court in Culombe v. Connecticut: (1) the duration and conditions of the detention, (2) the manifest attitude of the police, and (3) the defendant's mental and physical state. 367 U.S. 568, 602, 81 S.Ct. 1860, 1879, 6 L.Ed.2d 1037 (1961). 29 We do not believe that the duration or conditions of the detention were coercive. The defendant was detained in an interview room at the Madison Police Department for one to three hours. The room was unremarkable: about eight feet by twelve feet in size, with a half wall separating the interview area from a toilet area. The attitude of the police, as evidenced by the transcripts of the suppression hearing, was not coercive. When they arrived, the detectives gave the defendant his Miranda warnings for the second time that morning. When the defendant expressed doubt that he had anything else to tell them, the detectives simply said that they had more detailed questions to ask which, we have already found, was not a coercive comment. The defendant asserts that the detectives' failure to tell him that Schuh had died was a factor affecting the voluntariness of his waiver. As the Supreme Court has recently held, however, and as the magistrate found, merely withholding information regarding the subject of the interrogation does not render a Miranda waiver involuntary; additional information goes only to the wisdom of the waiver, not its nature. Colorado v. Spring, 479 U.S. 564, 107 S.Ct. 851, 859, 93 L.Ed.2d 954 (1987). The defendant also argues that his mental and physical state was such that he could not voluntarily waive his rights. The defendant had been drinking and smoking marijuana during the past twenty-four hours, and had had no sleep the previous night. The defendant himself, however, testified that he had had no alcohol in the five or six hours prior to the interview, and that he understood the detectives' questions. Moreover, the interrogation was not lengthy or arduous: it lasted less than half an hour. We agree with the magistrate and district court that the defendant's statements to the detectives were made voluntarily. 30