Opinion ID: 107252
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: All written statements made after caution shall be taken in the following manner:

Text: (a) If a person says that he wants to make a statement he shall be told that it is intended to make a written record of what he says. He shall always be asked whether he wishes to write down himself what he wants to say; if he says that he cannot write or that he would like someone to write it for him, a police officer may offer to write the statement for him. . . . (b) Any person writing his own statement shall be allowed to do so without any prompting as distinct from indicating to him what matters are material. ..... (d) Whenever a police officer writes the statement, he shall take down the exact words spoken by the person making the statement, without putting any questions other than such as may be needed to make the statement coherent, intelligible and relevant to the material matters: he shall not prompt him. The prior Rules appear in Devlin, The Criminal Prosecution in England 137-141 (1958). Despite suggestions of some laxity in enforcement of the Rules and despite the fact some discretion as to admissibility is invested in the trial judge, the Rules are a significant influence in the English criminal law enforcement system. See, e. g., [1964] Crim. L. Rev., at 182; and articles collected in [1960] Crim. L. Rev., at 298-356. [58] The introduction to the Judges' Rules states in part: These Rules do not affect the principles ..... (c) That every person at any stage of an investigation should be able to communicate and to consult privately with a solicitor. This is so even if he is in custody provided that in such a case no unreasonable delay or hindrance is caused to the processes of investigation or the administration of justice by his doing so . . . . [1964] Crim. L. Rev., at 166-167. [59] As stated by the Lord Justice General in Chalmers v. H. M. Advocate, [1954] Sess. Cas. 66, 78 (J. C.): The theory of our law is that at the stage of initial investigation the police may question anyone with a view to acquiring information which may lead to the detection of the criminal; but that, when the stage has been reached at which suspicion, or more than suspicion, has in their view centred upon some person as the likely perpetrator of the crime, further interrogation of that person becomes very dangerous, and, if carried too far, e. g., to the point of extracting a confession by what amounts to cross-examination, the evidence of that confession will almost certainly be excluded. Once the accused has been apprehended and charged he has the statutory right to a private interview with a solicitor and to be brought before a magistrate with all convenient speed so that he may, if so advised, emit a declaration in presence of his solicitor under conditions which safeguard him against prejudice. [60] No confession made to a police officer shall be proved as against a person accused of any offence. Indian Evidence Act § 25. No confession made by any person whilst he is in the custody of a police officer unless it be made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate, shall be proved as against such person. Indian Evidence Act § 26. See 1 Ramaswami & Rajagopalan, Law of Evidence in India 553-569 (1962). To avoid any continuing effect of police pressure or inducement, the Indian Supreme Court has invalidated a confession made shortly after police brought a suspect before a magistrate, suggesting: [I]t would, we think, be reasonable to insist upon giving an accused person at least 24 hours to decide whether or not he should make a confession. Sarwan Singh v. State of Punjab, 44 All India Rep. 1957, Sup. Ct. 637, 644. [61] I Legislative Enactments of Ceylon 211 (1958). [62] 10 U. S. C. § 831 (b) (1964 ed.). [63] United States v. Rose, 24 CMR 251 (1957); United States v. Gunnels, 23 CMR 354 (1957). [64] Although no constitution existed at the time confessions were excluded by rule of evidence in 1872, India now has a written constitution which includes the provision that No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. Constitution of India, Article 20 (3). See Tope, The Constitution of India 63-67 (1960). [65] Brief for United States in No. 761, Westover v. United States , pp. 44-47; Brief for the State of New York as amicus curiae, pp. 35-39. See also Brief for the National District Attorneys Association as amicus curiae, pp. 23-26. [66] Miranda was also convicted in a separate trial on an unrelated robbery charge not presented here for review. A statement introduced at that trial was obtained from Miranda during the same interrogation which resulted in the confession involved here. At the robbery trial, one officer testified that during the interrogation he did not tell Miranda that anything he said would be held against him or that he could consult with an attorney. The other officer stated that they had both told Miranda that anything he said would be used against him and that he was not required by law to tell them anything. [67] One of the officers testified that he read this paragraph to Miranda. Apparently, however, he did not do so until after Miranda had confessed orally. [68] Vignera thereafter successfully attacked the validity of one of the prior convictions, Vignera v. Wilkins, Civ. 9901 (D. C. W. D. N. Y. Dec. 31, 1961) (unreported), but was then resentenced as a second-felony offender to the same term of imprisonment as the original sentence. R. 31-33. [69] The failure of defense counsel to object to the introduction of the confession at trial, noted by the Court of Appeals and emphasized by the Solicitor General, does not preclude our consideration of the issue. Since the trial was held prior to our decision in Escobedo and, of course, prior to our decision today making the objection available, the failure to object at trial does not constitute a waiver of the claim. See, e. g., United States ex rel. Angelet v. Fay, 333 F. 2d 12, 16 (C. A. 2d Cir. 1964), aff'd, 381 U. S. 654 (1965). Cf. Ziffrin, Inc. v. United States, 318 U. S. 73, 78 (1943). [70] Because of this disposition of the case, the California Supreme Court did not reach the claims that the confession was coerced by police threats to hold his ailing wife in custody until he confessed, that there was no hearing as required by Jackson v. Denno, 378 U. S. 368 (1964), and that the trial judge gave an instruction condemned by the California Supreme Court's decision in People v. Morse, 60 Cal. 2d 631, 388 P. 2d 33, 36 Cal. Rptr. 201 (1964). [71] After certiorari was granted in this case, respondent moved to dismiss on the ground that there was no final judgment from which the State could appeal since the judgment below directed that he be retried. In the event respondent was successful in obtaining an acquittal on retrial, however, under California law the State would have no appeal. Satisfied that in these circumstances the decision below constituted a final judgment under 28 U. S. C. § 1257 (3) (1964 ed.), we denied the motion. 383 U. S. 903. [1] E. g., Inbau & Reid, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions (1962); O'Hara, Fundamentals of Criminal Investigation (1956); Dienstein, Technics for the Crime Investigator (1952); Mulbar, Interrogation (1951); Kidd, Police Interrogation (1940). [2] As developed by my Brother HARLAN, post, pp. 506-514, such cases, with the exception of the long-discredited decision in Bram v. United States, 168 U. S. 532 (1897), were adequately treated in terms of due process. [3] The Court points to England, Scotland, Ceylon and India as having equally rigid rules. As my Brother HARLAN points out, post, pp. 521-523, the Court is mistaken in this regard, for it overlooks counterbalancing prosecutorial advantages. Moreover, the requirements of the Federal Bureau of Investigation do not appear from the Solicitor General's letter, ante, pp. 484-486, to be as strict as those imposed today in at least two respects: (1) The offer of counsel is articulated only as a right to counsel; nothing is said about a right to have counsel present at the custodial interrogation. (See also the examples cited by the Solicitor General, Westover v. United States, 342 F. 2d 684, 685 (1965) (right to consult counsel); Jackson v. United States, 337 F. 2d 136, 138 (1964) (accused entitled to an attorney).) Indeed, the practice is that whenever the suspect decides that he wishes to consult with counsel before making a statement, the interview is terminated at that point . . . . When counsel appears in person, he is permitted to confer with his client in private. This clearly indicates that the FBI does not warn that counsel may be present during custodial interrogation. (2) The Solicitor General's letter states: [T]hose who have been arrested for an offense under FBI jurisdiction, or whose arrest is contemplated following the interview, [are advised] of a right to free counsel if they are unable to pay, and the availability of such counsel from the Judge. So phrased, this warning does not indicate that the agent will secure counsel. Rather, the statement may well be interpreted by the suspect to mean that the burden is placed upon himself and that he may have counsel appointed only when brought before the judge or at trialbut not at custodial interrogation. As I view the FBI practice, it is not as broad as the one laid down today by the Court. [4] In my view there is no significant support in our cases for the holding of the Court today that the Fifth Amendment privilege, in effect, forbids custodial interrogation. For a discussion of this point see the dissenting opinion of my Brother WHITE, post, pp. 526-531. [1] My discussion in this opinion is directed to the main questions decided by the Court and necessary to its decision; in ignoring some of the collateral points, I do not mean to imply agreement. [2] The case was Bram v. United States, 168 U. S. 532 (quoted, ante, p. 461). Its historical premises were afterwards disproved by Wigmore, who concluded that no assertions could be more unfounded. 3 Wigmore, Evidence § 823, at 250, n. 5 (3d ed. 1940). The Court in United States v. Carignan, 342 U. S. 36, 41, declined to choose between Bram and Wigmore, and Stein v. New York, 346 U. S. 156, 191, n. 35, cast further doubt on Bram. There are, however, several Court opinions which assume in dicta the relevance of the Fifth Amendment privilege to confessions. Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U. S. 465, 475; see Shotwell Mfg. Co. v. United States, 371 U. S. 341, 347. On Bram and the federal confession cases generally, see Developments in the LawConfessions, 79 Harv. L. Rev. 935, 959-961 (1966). [3] Comment, 31 U. Chi. L. Rev. 313 & n. 1 (1964), states that by the 1963 Term 33 state coerced-confession cases had been decided by this Court, apart from per curiams. Spano v. New York, 360 U. S. 315, 321, n. 2, collects 28 cases. [4] Bator & Vorenberg, Arrest, Detention, Interrogation and the Right to Counsel, 66 Col. L. Rev. 62, 73 (1966): In fact, the concept of involuntariness seems to be used by the courts as a shorthand to refer to practices which are repellent to civilized standards of decency or which, under the circumstances, are thought to apply a degree of pressure to an individual which unfairly impairs his capacity to make a rational choice. See Herman, The Supreme Court and Restrictions on Police Interrogation, 25 Ohio St. L. J. 449, 452-458 (1964); Developments, supra, n. 2, at 964-984. [5] See the cases synopsized in Herman, supra, n. 4, at 456, nn. 36-39. One not too distant example is Stroble v. California, 343 U. S. 181, in which the suspect was kicked and threatened after his arrest, questioned a little later for two hours, and isolated from a lawyer trying to see him; the resulting confession was held admissible. [6] Among the examples given in 8 Wigmore, Evidence § 2266, at 401 (McNaughton rev. 1961), are these: the privilege applies to any witness, civil or criminal, but the confession rule protects only criminal defendants; the privilege deals only with compulsion, while the confession rule may exclude statements obtained by trick or promise; and where the privilege has been nullifiedas by the English Bankruptcy Actthe confession rule may still operate. [7] Additionally, there are precedents and even historical arguments that can be arrayed in favor of bringing extra-legal questioning within the privilege. See generally Maguire, Evidence of Guilt § 2.03, at 15-16 (1959). [8] This, of course, is implicit in the Court's introductory announcement that [o]ur decision in Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U. S. 1 (1964) [extending the Fifth Amendment privilege to the States] necessitates an examination of the scope of the privilege in state cases as well. Ante, p. 463. It is also inconsistent with Malloy itself, in which extension of the Fifth Amendment to the States rested in part on the view that the Due Process Clause restriction on state confessions has in recent years been the same standard as that imposed in federal prosecutions assertedly by the Fifth Amendment. 378 U. S., at 7. [9] I lay aside Escobedo itself; it contains no reasoning or even general conclusions addressed to the Fifth Amendment and indeed its citation in this regard seems surprising in view of Escobedo 's primary reliance on the Sixth Amendment. [10] Since the Court conspicuously does not assert that the Sixth Amendment itself warrants its new police-interrogation rules, there is no reason now to draw out the extremely powerful historical and precedential evidence that the Amendment will bear no such meaning. See generally Friendly, The Bill of Rights as a Code of Criminal Procedure, 53 Calif. L. Rev. 929, 943-948 (1965). [11] See supra, n. 4, and text. Of course, the use of terms like voluntariness involves questions of law and terminology quite as much as questions of fact. See Collins v. Beto, 348 F. 2d 823, 832 (concurring opinion); Bator & Vorenberg, supra, n. 4, at 72-73. [12] The Court's vision of a lawyer mitigat[ing] the dangers of untrustworthiness ( ante, p. 470) by witnessing coercion and assisting accuracy in the confession is largely a fancy; for if counsel arrives, there is rarely going to be a police station confession. Watts v. Indiana, 338 U. S. 49, 59 (separate opinion of Jackson, J.): [A]ny lawyer worth his salt will tell the suspect in no uncertain terms to make no statement to police under any circumstances. See Enker & Elsen, Counsel for the Suspect, 49 Minn. L. Rev. 47, 66-68 (1964). [13] This need is, of course, what makes so misleading the Court's comparison of a probate judge readily setting aside as involuntary the will of an old lady badgered and beleaguered by the new heirs. Ante, pp. 457-458, n. 26. With wills, there is no public interest save in a totally free choice; with confessions, the solution of crime is a countervailing gain, however the balance is resolved. [14] See, e. g., the voluminous citations to congressional committee testimony and other sources collected in Culombe v. Connecticut, 367 U. S. 568, 578-579 (Frankfurter, J., announcing the Court's judgment and an opinion). [15] In Westover, a seasoned criminal was practically given the Court's full complement of warnings and did not heed them. The Stewart case, on the other hand, involves long detention and successive questioning. In Vignera, the facts are complicated and the record somewhat incomplete. [16] [J]ustice, though due to the accused, is due to the accuser also. The concept of fairness must not be strained till it is narrowed to a filament. We are to keep the balance true. Snyder v. Massachusetts, 291 U. S. 97, 122 (Cardozo, J.). [17] A narrow reading is given in: United States v. Robinson, 354 F. 2d 109 (C. A. 2d Cir.); Davis v. North Carolina, 339 F. 2d 770 (C. A. 4th Cir.); Edwards v. Holman, 342 F. 2d 679 (C. A. 5th Cir.); United States ex rel. Townsend v. Ogilvie, 334 F. 2d 837 (C. A. 7th Cir.); People v. Hartgraves, 31 Ill. 2d 375, 202 N. E. 2d 33; State v. Fox, ___ Iowa ___, 131 N. W. 2d 684; Rowe v. Commonwealth, 394 S. W. 2d 751 (Ky.); Parker v. Warden, 236 Md. 236, 203 A. 2d 418; State v. Howard, 383 S. W. 2d 701 (Mo.); Bean v. State, ___ Nev. ___, 398 P. 2d 251; State v. Hodgson, 44 N. J. 151, 207 A. 2d 542; People v. Gunner, 15 N. Y. 2d 226, 205 N. E. 2d 852; Commonwealth ex rel. Linde v. Maroney, 416 Pa. 331, 206 A. 2d 288; Browne v. State, 24 Wis. 2d 491, 131 N. W. 2d 169. An ample reading is given in: United States ex rel. Russo v. New Jersey, 351 F. 2d 429 (C. A. 3d Cir.); Wright v. Dickson, 336 F. 2d 878 (C. A. 9th Cir.); People v. Dorado, 62 Cal. 2d 338, 398 P. 2d 361; State v. Dufour, ___ R. I. ___, 206 A. 2d 82; State v. Neely, 239 Ore. 487, 395 P. 2d 557, modified, 398 P. 2d 482. The cases in both categories are those readily available; there are certainly many others. [18] For instance, compare the requirements of the catalytic case of People v. Dorado, 62 Cal. 2d 338, 398 P. 2d 361, with those laid down today. See also Traynor, The Devils of Due Process in Criminal Detection, Detention, and Trial, 33 U. Chi. L. Rev. 657, 670. [19] The Court's obiter dictum notwithstanding, ante, p. 486, there is some basis for believing that the staple of FBI criminal work differs importantly from much crime within the ken of local police. The skill and resources of the FBI may also be unusual. [20] For citations and discussion covering each of these points, see Developments, supra, n. 2, at 1091-1097, and Enker & Elsen, supra, n. 12, at 80 & n. 94. [21] On comment, see Hardin, Other Answers: Search and Seizure, Coerced Confession, and Criminal Trial in Scotland, 113 U. Pa. L. Rev. 165, 181 and nn. 96-97 (1964). Other examples are less stringent search and seizure rules and no automatic exclusion for violation of them, id., at 167-169; guilt based on majority jury verdicts, id., at 185; and pre-trial discovery of evidence on both sides, id., at 175. [22] Of particular relevance is the ALI's drafting of a Model Code of Pre-Arraignment Procedure, now in its first tentative draft. While the ABA and National Commission studies have wider scope, the former is lending its advice to the ALI project and the executive director of the latter is one of the reporters for the Model Code. [23] See Brief for the United States in Westover, p. 45. The N. Y. Times, June 3, 1966, p. 41 (late city ed.) reported that the Ford Foundation has awarded $1,100,000 for a five-year study of arrests and confessions in New York. [24] The New York Assembly recently passed a bill to require certain warnings before an admissible confession is taken, though the rules are less strict than are the Court's. N. Y. Times, May 24, 1966, p. 35 (late city ed.). [25] The Court waited 12 years after Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U. S. 25, declared privacy against improper state intrusions to be constitutionally safeguarded before it concluded in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643, that adequate state remedies had not been provided to protect this interest so the exclusionary rule was necessary. [1] Of course the Court does not deny that it is departing from prior precedent; it expressly overrules Crooker and Cicenia, ante, at 479, n. 48, and it acknowledges that in the instant cases we might not find the defendants' statements to have been involuntary in traditional terms, ante, at 457. [2] In fact, the type of sustained interrogation described by the Court appears to be the exception rather than the rule. A survey of 399 cases in one city found that in almost half of the cases the interrogation lasted less than 30 minutes. Barrett, Police Practices and the LawFrom Arrest to Release or Charge, 50 Calif. L. Rev. 11, 41-45 (1962). Questioning tends to be confused and sporadic and is usually concentrated on confrontations with witnesses or new items of evidence, as these are obtained by officers conducting the investigation. See generally LaFave, Arrest: The Decision to Take a Suspect into Custody 386 (1965); ALI, A Model Code of Pre-Arraignment Procedure, Commentary § 5.01, at 170, n. 4 (Tent. Draft No. 1, 1966). [3] By contrast, the Court indicates that in applying this new rule it will not pause to inquire in individual cases whether the defendant was aware of his rights without a warning being given. Ante, at 468. The reason given is that assessment of the knowledge of the defendant based on information as to age, education, intelligence, or prior contact with authorities can never be more than speculation, while a warning is a clear-cut fact. But the officers' claim that they gave the requisite warnings may be disputed, and facts respecting the defendant's prior experience may be undisputed and be of such a nature as to virtually preclude any doubt that the defendant knew of his rights. See United States v. Bolden, 355 F. 2d 453 (C. A. 7th Cir. 1965), petition for cert. pending No. 1146, O. T. 1965 (Secret Service agent); People v. Du Bont, 235 Cal. App. 2d 844, 45 Cal. Rptr. 717, pet. for cert. pending No. 1053, Misc., O. T. 1965 (former police officer). [4] Precise statistics on the extent of recidivism are unavailable, in part because not all crimes are solved and in part because criminal records of convictions in different jurisdictions are not brought together by a central data collection agency. Beginning in 1963, however, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began collating data on Careers in Crime, which it publishes in its Uniform Crime Reports. Of 92,869 offenders processed in 1963 and 1964, 76% had a prior arrest record on some charge. Over a period of 10 years the group had accumulated 434,000 charges. FBI, Uniform Crime Reports1964, 27-28. In 1963 and 1964 between 23% and 25% of all offenders sentenced in 88 federal district courts (excluding the District Court for the District of Columbia) whose criminal records were reported had previously been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 13 months or more. Approximately an additional 40% had a prior record less than prison (juvenile record, probation record, etc.). Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Federal Offenders in the United States District Courts: 1964, x, 36 (hereinafter cited as Federal Offenders: 1964); Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Federal Offenders in the United States District Courts: 1963, 25-27 (hereinafter cited as Federal Offenders: 1963). During the same two years in the District Court for the District of Columbia between 28% and 35% of those sentenced had prior prison records and from 37% to 40% had a prior record less than prison. Federal Offenders: 1964, xii, 64, 66; Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Federal Offenders in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia: 1963, 8, 10 (hereinafter cited as District of Columbia Offenders: 1963). A similar picture is obtained if one looks at the subsequent records of those released from confinement. In 1964, 12.3% of persons on federal probation had their probation revoked because of the commission of major violations (defined as one in which the probationer has been committed to imprisonment for a period of 90 days or more, been placed on probation for over one year on a new offense, or has absconded with felony charges outstanding). Twenty-three and two-tenths percent of parolees and 16.9% of those who had been mandatorily released after service of a portion of their sentence likewise committed major violations. Reports of the Proceedings of the Judicial Conference of the United States and Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts: 1965, 138. See also Mandel et al., Recidivism Studied and Defined, 56 J. Crim. L., C. & P. S. 59 (1965) (within five years of release 62.33% of sample had committed offenses placing them in recidivist category). [5] Eighty-eight federal district courts (excluding the District Court for the District of Columbia) disposed of the cases of 33,381 criminal defendants in 1964. Only 12.5% of those cases were actually tried. Of the remaining cases, 89.9% were terminated by convictions upon pleas of guilty and 10.1% were dismissed. Stated differently, approximately 90% of all convictions resulted from guilty pleas. Federal Offenders: 1964, supra, note 4, 3-6. In the District Court for the District of Columbia a higher percentage, 27%, went to trial, and the defendant pleaded guilty in approximately 78% of the cases terminated prior to trial. Id., at 58-59. No reliable statistics are available concerning the percentage of cases in which guilty pleas are induced because of the existence of a confession or of physical evidence unearthed as a result of a confession. Undoubtedly the number of such cases is substantial. Perhaps of equal significance is the number of instances of known crimes which are not solved. In 1964, only 388,946, or 23.9% of 1,626,574 serious known offenses were cleared. The clearance rate ranged from 89.8% for homicides to 18.7% for larceny. FBI, Uniform Crime Reports1964, 20-22, 101. Those who would replace interrogation as an investigatorial tool by modern scientific investigation techniques significantly overestimate the effectiveness of present procedures, even when interrogation is included.