Opinion ID: 584616
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admission of Confessions

Text: 7 At trial, defendants moved to suppress testimony about the alleged confessions. They contended that customs officials elicited the confessions through subtle interrogation carried on after they had asserted their right to counsel and in the absence of a valid waiver of their rights. After a hearing outside the presence of the jury, the district court found that the defendants' statements were voluntarily given and were not the product of prodding or questioning by customs officers. The court, accordingly, allowed the statements. In challenging that ruling on appeal, defendants argue that, while their confessions may not have been the product of direct interrogation, they were the product of indirect pressures created when the customs officers discussed aspects of the case, between themselves, in defendants' presence. We find no error in the district court's ruling that defendants' statements were voluntarily given. 8 In Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court held that an accused has a right under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to remain silent and to the presence of counsel during a custodial interrogation. 384 U.S. 436 (1966). While an accused may waive his rights, once he has asserted the right to have counsel present, additional safeguards are required. Specifically, when an accused has invoked his right to have counsel present during custodial interrogation, a valid waiver of that right cannot be established by showing only that he responded to further police-initiated custodial interrogation even if he has been advised of his rights. We further hold that an accused, ... having expressed his desire to deal with the police only through counsel, is not subject to further interrogation by the authorities until counsel has been made available to him, unless the accused himself initiates further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police. 9 Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 484-85 (1981). Interrogation can take many forms. It refers not only to express questioning, but also to any words or actions on the part of the police (other than those normally attendant to arrest and custody) 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 (1980). 10 Defendants contend here that Officers Snchez and Morales Amaro were most likely discussing and putting into the computer all information relevant to defendants' case at the time the latter confessed. It is common knowledge, defendant Gonzalez Suarez argues, that case reports include information regarding the offense, penalties, and subsequent criminal judicial proceedings. It follows that such information was probably being discussed among the officers in the presence of both defendants and that this exerted coercive pressure. Both defendants assert that there could be no other reasonable explanation why defendants having recently requested an attorney and refused to sign a waiver of their rights would have spontaneously confessed. Accordingly, defendants wish us to conclude that Officers Snchez and Morales Amaro coerced defendants into confessing. 11 At the hearing to determine the voluntariness of the confessions, Officer Snchez testified that after he read defendants' their rights and after they requested counsel, neither he nor any other officer attempted to question defendants. He testified that he simply proceeded to do the rest of the procedures, I entered the case in the computer and all this. He further responded to questions from the court as follows: 12 Court: What happened next? 13 Snchez: Amaro comes in and, as he comes in, he was asking me some questions about the case. Court: Amaro and you, then, are discussing 14 Snchez: We're not discussing the case, he is just asking me about some procedures, separate from the case itself, not related to this case, but to the computer, then, at that time, Ricardo 15 [Gonzalez Suarez] started to make a statement. 16 Both defendants had an opportunity to cross-examine Snchez concerning this testimony. Neither counsel for defense, however, examined Snchez about any aspect of the conversation between the customs officers that defendants now allege coerced them into confessing. 17 At the conclusion of the hearing the district court judge stated: 18 I was very specific in the questions I asked Mr. Snchez, whether any prodding had been made or any questions had been propounded to the two defendants after they had expressed their desire to have an attorney; and if he would have said that, yes, a question was made, then I would have not admitted those statements. But being the way that this was done and that no questions were propounded to them to get them to waive their right or to make statements, and given the credibility that I give to Mr. Snchez testimony, the Court rules, then, that these statements will be admissible and they will go to the jury tomorrow. 19 Based on this record, we cannot say that the district court committed error in determining that no questioning at all had occurred, or in failing to find that the conversation between the officers amounted to the subtle form of interrogation forbidden in Innis, 446 U.S. at 301. Defendants point to nothing specific of a suggestive or coercive nature. Instead, they ask the court to speculate that because there is no explanation for why they confessed after asking for counsel, then they must have been coerced. This does not necessarily follow. 20 Defendants argue that their confessions were not voluntary for another reason. According to defendants they did not fully understand their rights. The district court fully explored this possibility at the voluntariness hearing. After questioning Officer Snchez about the procedures that were followed in arresting defendants, the district court concluded the following: 21 From the testimony of Mr. Snchez I find him credible, that he took his time, that he wanted to make sure that, coming from a foreign country, they understood what our system of justice was; insofar as explaining their rights, he took his time to make sure that they did; and the best evidence of that is that they told him that they did not want to talk anymore until they contacted an attorney, and that they did not want to sign anything. If afterwards they gave a statement, that was a matter of their own choosing. 22 We have said that assessing the credibility of witnesses is solely the province of the trier of fact. United States v. Green, 887 F.2d 25, 28 (1st Cir. 1989) (citation omitted). We see no clear error in the district court's conclusion based on the record before us. Accordingly, we hold that the district court properly admitted the confessions. See Miranda, 384 U.S. at 478 ([c]onfessions remain a proper element in law enforcement. Any statement given freely and voluntarily without any compelling influences is, of course, admissible in evidence.).