Opinion ID: 2585179
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Post-interview events

Text: The focus of the post-interview events factor is whether the suspect was arrested, detained, or left free. The state argues that Smith was not arrested immediately. Smith argues that even if he was not arrested immediately, at least one, and sometimes two, police officers stayed with him and that he was arrested about one and one-half hours after the interview. The post-interview events factor is of limited weight. In Hunter, we noted that the post-interview events factor cannot by itself be the determinative test for custody. The police might be willing to release a suspect after custodial interrogation, especially if the release permitted them to introduce statements that might otherwise be excluded for lack of Miranda warnings. Also, a court must determine whether the defendant was in custody when he made the incriminating statements; it is illogical to rest that judgment primarily on something that occurs after the defendant has made the statements. [44] The state argues that the police only need go through the fiction of releasing the suspect to impart the feeling that the suspect is free to leave. Sound public policy contradicts giving the police incentive to delay arrests just to work a fiction of non-custodial interrogation. Thus, this factor's slight weight favors a conclusion of custody because the police remained with Smith until he was arrested less than two hours later.