Opinion ID: 505933
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Involuntariness of Depositions

Text: 16 The Government contends that the district court committed error by suppressing the depositions of the defendants taken in the SPLC's civil action. The Government asserts several grounds on which to reverse the district court, but its initial contention is that the law of the case precluded the district court from reconsidering the voluntariness of the SPLC depositions of Handley, Steele, Riccio, Tucker, White, and Mason. 6
17 The doctrine of the law of the case mandates that an appellate court decision on an issue ... be followed in all subsequent trial court proceedings in the same case. Leggett v. Badger, 798 F.2d 1387, 1389 (11th Cir.1984) (per curiam); Wheeler v. City of Pleasant Grove, 746 F.2d 1437, 1440 (11th Cir.1984) (per curiam). This applies to the appellate court's findings of fact and conclusions of law. Id. at 1440. Moreover, even though the law of the case does not extend to issues the appellate court did not address, Piambino v. Bailey, 757 F.2d 1112, 1120 (11th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1169, 106 S.Ct. 2889, 90 L.Ed.2d 976 (1986), it encompasses matters decided by necessary implication by this Court. Wheeler, 746 F.2d at 1440. 18 The purpose of the law of the case doctrine is to bring an end to litigation. In addition, it ensures that district courts obey appellate courts and that the parties are not required to relitigate settled issues. Id. With these principles in mind, we compare the district court's current set of opinions suppressing the depositions with its earlier decision and with the initial decision of this Court. See id. This comparison clearly demonstrates that the district court violated the law of the case. 19 In its first memorandum opinion suppressing the SPLC depositions, the district court concluded that, under the totality of the circumstances, no defendant had intelligently and voluntarily waived his Fifth Amendment rights. Handley I, 591 F.Supp. at 1267. The district court also held that the SPLC was the arm of the Government in this investigation and that any SPLC misconduct should be attributed to the Government. Id. at 1268-69. Because the district court concluded that the SPLC compelled the defendants to testify in the depositions, the court suppressed the depositions as violative of the Fifth Amendment. Id. at 1268. 20 This Court reversed the suppression order, holding that any compulsion exerted by the SPLC against the civil deponents could not be imputed to the Government. Handley II, 763 F.2d at 1406. We found that the civil case was a viable action apart from the benefits it provided to the criminal investigation and that the SPLC did not bring the civil action solely to obtain evidence for the criminal prosecution. Id. at 1405. 7 Accordingly, we held that the Government could introduce the depositions at trial, as long as the confrontation clause was satisfied. Id. at 1406. 21 On remand, the district court held a new series of suppression hearings regarding the depositions because it said that no court had determined (1) whether the SPLC depositions were given voluntarily within the requirements of the Fifth Amendment, or (2) whether the deponents knowingly waived their Fifth Amendment rights. Handley III, 644 F.Supp. at 1171. This was clearly incorrect. In Handley II, we rejected the district court's conclusion that the depositions violated the Fifth Amendment. By reversing the suppression of the evidence, Handley II decided, at least implicitly, that the depositions were not involuntary within the context of the Fifth Amendment. See Wheeler, 746 F.2d at 1440. Thus, the Fifth Amendment voluntariness issue is part of the law of the case. 22 However, the inquiry does not end here. Three exceptions to the law of the case doctrine exist. A federal district court can act contrary to an appellate decision: (1) when new and substantially different evidence is presented subsequent to the appeal; (2) when controlling authority has been rendered, contrary to the law of the appellate decision; [and] (3) when the prior decision was clearly erroneous and would work a manifest injustice if implemented. Leggett, 798 F.2d at 1389. This Court reads these exceptions narrowly, requiring district courts to apply the law of the case unless one of the exceptions specifically and unquestionably applies. See id. at 1389 n. 2. 23 It is evident that the district court realized that Handley II foreclosed a new voluntariness determination because it found in the alternative that two exceptions to the law of the case doctrine applied in these cases. First, the court stated that a change in controlling authority required suppression of the depositions. As controlling authority, the district court cited Erwin v. Price, 778 F.2d 668 (11th Cir.1985), in which a police officer was discharged for refusing to answer questions asked by government investigators in an internal investigation. Erwin held that where there is a formal disciplinary investigation during which a public employee is ordered to answer proper questions under threat of dismissal, coercion is presumed and the government bears the burden of demonstrating voluntariness. Id. at 670. The district court did not explain how this represents a change in controlling authority relevant to the present cases. Apparently, the court cited Erwin for the proposition that the government must demonstrate the voluntariness of answers given to official questions. However, Erwin dealt with a public employee's statement in conjunction with a work-related disciplinary proceeding. This has no application in the present context where a nongovernmental actor allegedly coerced the defendants. 24 A similar criticism can be addressed to the second case that the lower court identified as contrary controlling authority. In Crane v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 683, 106 S.Ct. 2142, 90 L.Ed.2d 636 (1986), the Supreme Court held that evidence regarding the circumstances under which the police obtained a defendant's confession should be submitted to the jury even though the trial court had already determined that the confession was voluntary. The Supreme Court stated that, because this evidence bears on the reliability and credibility of the confession, the jury should hear it. Id. at 2145. However, Crane did not discuss the standard for determining whether a confession is voluntary; it merely emphasized that the trial court must determine the voluntariness of a custodial confession. Moreover, Crane did not hold that the Fifth Amendment could be violated by the conduct of private actors who are not associated with the government. Because neither of the cases cited by the district court controls the issues in these consolidated cases, the narrow exception to the law of the case doctrine for intervening authority does not specifically and unquestionably apply. See Leggett, 798 F.2d at 1389 n. 2. 25 In addition to the controlling authority exception, the district court invoked the exception to the law of the case doctrine which allows a district court to act contrary to an appellate decision where substantial new evidence was presented on remand. See, e.g., United States v. Tucker, 648 F.Supp. 1277, 1278 (N.D.Ala.1986) (Tucker II ); White, 643 F.Supp. at 1069-70. The district court stated that the new evidence demonstrated that Morris Dees was, in fact, the Government's agent, and that the SPLC's sole purpose in filing its civil action was to obtain criminal indictments. 26 The purportedly new evidence consisted of former Klansman Lloyd Letson's testimony at the Creekmore trial and certain aspects of Dees' behavior during the pendency of the civil and criminal cases. First, Letson testified that he and Dees had visited the office of AUSA Frohsin on October 20, 1982, when Letson testified at a hearing in the SPLC civil action. Dees allegedly told Letson that he would have nothing to worry about if he told Frohsin the truth, and Letson understood this to mean that he would receive immunity. Although Letson also testified that neither Frohsin nor Dees mentioned immunity, Tucker II, 648 F.Supp. at 1279, the district court concluded that this testimony indicated that Dees was Frohsin's agent, that Dees offered immunity on behalf of the Government, and that the sole purpose of the civil action was to obtain evidence for the criminal prosecution. Id. at 1279-80. As further evidence of the partnership between the Department and Dees, the court noted that Frohsin attended the hearing at which Letson testified, demonstrating that Frohsin knew what Dees was doing as early as 1982. 27 This does not constitute substantially different evidence from that relied upon previously by the district court. In 1984, Dees testified that he had visited Frohsin's office on October 20, 1982, because Frohsin was representing an FBI agent who Dees intended to call at the hearing. While in the office, Dees told Frohsin that someone from the Department should attend the hearing to listen to Letson's testimony. Thus, the record does not suggest that there was an illicit partnership between Dees and Frohsin. The district judge's new finding is based in part on evidence that was in the record before this Court in 1985. 8 Moreover, even if Letson was correct in inferring that Dees would attempt to get him immunity, that does not mean that Dees had the prior approval of the Government. 28 As further evidence of its conclusion that the SPLC's sole purpose was to obtain indictments, the district court pointed to White's claim that an SPLC investigator promised to go light on him if he cooperated. White, 643 F.Supp. at 1070. The district court concluded that this promise referred to criminal prosecution, id., but these statements, if made, most likely applied to the civil litigation. For example, the SPLC dismissed Letson and other defendants from the civil action in return for their cooperation. 9 29 As an additional example of new evidence of the agency relationship between Dees and the Government, the district court relied on Dees' so-called Freudian slip made during his testimony on October 3, 1986. At that hearing, Dees responded to a question from Judge Acker by saying, We charged that ... Because Dees used the word charged, the district court found that Dees was inadvertently identifying himself with the Department of Justice. Mason, 646 F.Supp. at 848. This is clearly erroneous. Our examination of the transcript indicates that Dees merely referred to what he labelled the charges in his civil complaint. The district judge failed to quote the portion of the exchange between Dees and the court which demonstrated that Dees was not referring to the Department's criminal charges. 10 Consequently, the district judge did not present an accurate portrait of the testimony. 30 Importantly, the district court's various opinions do not disclose any new evidence demonstrating that any government official discussed immunity with the defendants or directed or influenced the taking of depositions by the SPLC. 11 Thus, no evidence cited by the district court suggests that Dees was an agent of the Department so as to require an exception to the application of the law of the case doctrine. Moreover, the lower court failed to uncover any substantially new evidence suggesting that the SPLC's sole purpose in filing its civil suit was to obtain evidence for the criminal prosecution. 12 31 Because no substantially different evidence or contrary controlling authority brings these cases within the narrow exceptions to the law of the case doctrine, we reverse the district court's orders suppressing the SPLC depositions of Tucker, Steele, Handley, Riccio, White 13 and Mason. 14
32 Although we reverse the suppression of the SPLC depositions as violative of the law of the case, we address the district court's additional errors so as to provide guidance to the judge in further proceedings. In addition, these errors impact on other evidence which the district court suppressed. 33 In these cases, the lower court's approach to the Fifth Amendment was fundamentally flawed. At one juncture, the district judge stated that [t]he use of an involuntary confession is precluded by the Fifth Amendment whether it is the Government which overrides the will of the accused or it is a private actor who overrides that will. Mason, 646 F.Supp. at 854-55. This is an erroneous statement of law. See Handley II, 763 F.2d at 1405 (Impropriety in the taking of these depositions will authorize their suppression under the [F]ifth [A]mendment if and only if such conduct may be imputed to the Government). The Supreme Court has emphasized that [t]he sole concern of the Fifth Amendment ... is governmental coercion. Colorado v. Connelly, 79 U.S. 157, 107 S.Ct. 515, 523, 93 L.Ed.2d 473 (1986). Since only governmental coercion can result in suppression of statements as violative of the Fifth Amendment, the lower court's approach to this issue is clearly incorrect. Contrary to the district judge's assertion that the proper inquiry is into the method by which the confession was obtained, no matter who applied the screws,Mason, 646 F.Supp. at 855, the actual inquiry must be directed toward determining whether the Government, or its agent, coerced a confession. Connelly, 107 S.Ct. at 522-23. 34 The lower court also committed error by relying heavily on its finding, contrary to this Court's determination, that the SPLC's sole purpose for deposing the defendants was to obtain evidence for the criminal prosecution. Even if Dees' sole motive was to help indict the defendants, his behavior may not be imputed to the Government for the purposes of suppression under the Fifth Amendment. As Connelly emphasized, [t]he most outrageous behavior by a private party seeking to secure evidence against a defendant does not render that evidence inadmissible. 107 S.Ct. at 521. Since Dees was acting in his capacity as a private citizen, his motives or tactics were irrelevant to the question whether the Government could use the evidence he collected. 15 35 Beyond its errors in imputing the behavior of the SPLC to the Government, the district court also applied an incorrect standard in assessing whether the SPLC depositions were taken in violation of the Fifth Amendment. On remand, the district judge required the Government to carry the burden of proving that each deposition was given voluntarily. Handley III, 644 F.Supp. at 1174. This is the standard applicable when the Government wants to use statements made during a custodial interrogation. See Garner v. United States, 424 U.S. 648, 657, 96 S.Ct. 1178, 1183, 47 L.Ed.2d 370 (1976) (government must demonstrate that defendant in a custodial interrogation voluntarily waived his Fifth Amendment rights). The reasoning behind this rule is that, without proper safeguards the circumstances of custodial interrogation deny an individual the ability freely to choose to remain silent ... [A]ny pressures inherent in custodial interrogation are compulsions to incriminate, not merely compulsions to make unprivileged disclosures. Id. For this reason, a defendant in custody must knowingly and voluntarily waive his Fifth Amendment privilege. 36 The same concerns do not exist when interrogation does not occur in custody. In a non-custodial interrogation, an individual may lose the benefit of the privilege without making a knowing and intelligent waiver. Id. at 654 n. 9, 96 S.Ct. at 1182 n. 9; Minnesota v. Murphy, 465 U.S. 420, 428, 104 S.Ct. 1136, 1142, 79 L.Ed.2d 409 (1983). Therefore, in this case, no justification exists for requiring the Government to bear the burden of proving that the defendants voluntarily waived their Fifth Amendment protections. None of the defendants was in custody at the time that any of the suppressed statements was made. None of the depositions was conducted so as to restrain the defendants, and no government officials were present. Even though the deponents were compelled by subpoena to appear and give depositions in the SPLC's civil action, the Government's use of any disclosures made by the defendants does not violate the Fifth Amendment. Where the witness fails to claim the privilege, the government has not 'compelled' him to incriminate himself. Murphy, 465 U.S. at 427, 104 S.Ct. at 1142 (quoting Garner, 424 U.S. at 654, 96 S.Ct. at 1182). Accordingly, the district court erred in requiring the Government to demonstrate that the defendants knowingly waived their Fifth Amendment privileges with respect to the suppressed statements. 37 In addition, the district court erred in holding that the defendants preserved their Fifth Amendment privileges by stipulating in their depositions that objections could be made at trial. 16 The district court relied on this as a ground for suppressing: (1) the SPLC depositions of White, Mason, Riccio, and Steele; (2) the responses Handley gave to Dees' questions in the deposition in Reed v. Handley; and (3) Kelso's deposition in Kelso v. Robinson. There are several problems with this ruling. First, it ignores the settled principle which requires a witness to assert his Fifth Amendment rights. A witness who testifies at any proceeding, instead of asserting his Fifth Amendment rights, loses the privilege. Murphy, 465 U.S. at 427, 104 S.Ct. at 1142; Garner, 424 U.S. at 654-55, 96 S.Ct. at 1182. A civil deponent cannot choose to answer questions with the expectation of later asserting the Fifth Amendment. 17 Second, the boilerplate stipulation in these depositions is designed to allow a party to object on evidentiary grounds at trial. It does not address privileged material, which is not discoverable. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). The assertion of a privilege is not the same as an evidentiary objection. Third, the defendants and their attorneys asserted their Fifth Amendment rights at various times during the depositions. This suggests that the defendants understood that the stipulation did not protect their Fifth Amendment rights. For these reasons, the district court's holding that the stipulations relieved the defendants of their obligation to invoke the Fifth Amendment during the depositions was error. The defendants cannot rely on these stipulations to preserve their Fifth Amendment rights. 18 38