Opinion ID: 7097
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Voluntariness of Confession and Statements

Text: 49 Manuel nevertheless contends that even if exigent circumstances did justify the agent's warrantless entry into the Clear Cove residence, the district court still erred in permitting Agents Vasquez and Bingham to testify about statements Manual purportedly made to them after he was arrested. 33 This is so, he insists, because whatever he might have said was coerced and thus involuntary. Manuel correctly notes that the government has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that a defendant voluntarily waived his constitutional rights against self incrimination and that the statements he made were voluntary. 34 The standard for determining whether a confession or statement was voluntarily made is whether, taking into consideration the totality of the circumstances, the accused spoke as a result of his free and rational choice, with an awareness of his abandonment of the right to remain silent and of the consequences of that decision. 35 50 After Manuel was handcuffed, he was read his Miranda rights in Spanish; he signed an advice-of-rights card in which he acknowledged waiving those rights; and he then accompanied the agents to an upstairs bedroom where the two agents questioned him. The record is devoid of evidence that the agents physically threatened Manuel or made any promises to obtain his cooperation. True, Manuel claims that the agents accused him of being a Columbian drug dealer and stated that he and Debra would be sent to prison for the rest of their lives because of their crimes; but such allegations, even if proved true, would be insufficient, standing alone, to establish that his subsequent cooperation was involuntary. 51