Opinion ID: 2066027
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Claim Regarding Admissibility of Defendant's Statements While She Was Being Processed in Preparation of Booking

Text: Defendant next asserts that the trial court erred in not suppressing the statements she made to Officer Neuberg while being processed (fingerprinted and photographed) at the Bensenville police station because these statements were in response to custodial interrogation and she had not been given Miranda warnings by Officer Neuberg prior to making them. Defendant wrote out and signed a confession after being apprised of her Miranda rights and waiving them for the second time while in custody at 10:30 p.m., on July 22, 1991. Two and a half hours later, at 1 a.m., on July 23, 1991, Officer Neuberg processed the defendant. Officer Neuberg did not, at any point, reread defendant her Miranda rights. Officer Neuberg's attempts to fingerprint the defendant were made more difficult by the defendant's continual shaking. Officer Neuberg asked the defendant why she was shaking in an attempt to ascertain whether there was something that would make the defendant more comfortable. The defendant responded that she had never shot anyone before. At this juncture, Officer Neuberg asked the defendant what kind of gun she had used and where she had gotten it. Defendant responded that she had used a.357 Magnum and that she had obtained it from a friend. We note initially that Officer Neuberg's first question, Why are you shaking? did not constitute custodial interrogation. Interrogation, for Miranda purposes, has been defined as any words or actions on the part of the police    that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. ( Rhode Island v. Innis (1980), 446 U.S. 291, 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1689-90, 64 L.Ed.2d 297, 308.) Here, the focus was primarily upon the reasonable perceptions of the suspect, rather than the intent of the police. ( Innis, 446 U.S. at 301, 100 S.Ct. at 1690, 64 L.Ed.2d at 308.) Nevertheless, Officer Neuberg's initial question was not directed at defendant's alleged crime, but, rather, constituted an innocent attempt to help the defendant. Defendant's response that she had shot her husband thus constituted a voluntary admission and cannot reasonably be construed as a response to a question likely to elicit an incriminating response to custodial interrogation. The subsequent questions of Officer Neuberg, however, clearly constitute interrogation in that they were directed to the alleged crime, and thus reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. At issue, then, is whether the Miranda warnings given by the police to the defendant 2½ hours prior to Officer Neuberg's questions were sufficient to apprise defendant of her Miranda rights at the time of Neuberg's questions. Whether, and under what circumstances, Miranda warnings can become stale has never been directly addressed by this court. It is generally accepted that fresh Miranda warnings are not required after the passage of several hours. (See 1 W. LaFave & J. Israel, Criminal Procedure § 6.8, at 520 (1984); see also Stumes v. Solem (8th Cir.1985), 752 F.2d 317, 321.) This commonsense approach avoids the otherwise ridiculous situation of police officers having to issue Miranda warnings prior to each question or after every break in the questioning. Rather, the better rule is to require new warnings only in those situations where a substantial probability exists that warnings given at a previous interrogation are so stale and remote that a substantial possibility exists that the suspect was unaware of his or her constitutional rights at the time subsequent interrogation occurs. (See Gregg v. State (1974), 233 Ga. 117, 124-25, 210 S.E.2d 659, 665-66; State v. Westmoreland (1985), 314 N.C. 442, 447, 334 S.E.2d 223, 226.) Moreover, we hold that the totality of the circumstances should be looked to in determining whether given defendants understand their constitutional rights in post- Miranda warning interrogations. See, e.g., Upton v. State (1974), 257 Ark. 424, 429, 516 S.W.2d 904, 907-08. The totality of the instant circumstances leads to the conclusion that defendant was aware of her constitutional rights to silence and to an attorney at the time she answered Officer Neuberg's questions. Just 2½ hours prior to Neuberg's questions, at 10:30 p.m., defendant had received, understood and waived her second set of Miranda rights. Moreover, her written confession at that time was consistent with her statement to Officer Neuberg that she had shot her husband. Finally, we note the defendant's broad experience with the criminal justice system, evidencing further that she understood that she still had the right to remain silent and to an attorney at the time of Officer Neuberg's questions. Thus, we conclude that, to the extent that Officer Neuberg's questions constituted custodial interrogation, they were not violative of defendant's Miranda rights because the previous Miranda warnings were still in effect.