Opinion ID: 450747
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Illegal Arrest

Text: 41 In arguing that Cherry's consent to the search of the ceiling above his barracks was voluntary under the fourth amendment, the government relies principally on Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973), and United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980). In these cases, the Supreme Court held that the voluntariness of a consent to search is to be determined by the totality of all the circumstances. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 557, 100 S.Ct. at 1879. Neither of these cases, however, dealt with a situation in which the consent at issue was made subsequent to an illegal arrest. We have held that under these circumstances the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine applies and therefore voluntariness is merely a threshold requirement. United States v. Robinson, 625 F.2d 1211, 1220 (5th Cir.1980); see also Taylor v. Alabama, 457 U.S. 687, 690, 102 S.Ct. 2664, 2668, 73 L.Ed.2d 314 (1982); Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 217, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2259, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979). Moreover, it is well established in this circuit that, in attempting to prove voluntary consent following an illegal arrest, the government bears a heavier burden than when consent is given after a legal arrest. United States v. Melendez-Gonzalez, 727 F.2d 407, 414 (5th Cir.1984); United States v. Ballard, 573 F.2d 913, 916 (5th Cir.1978); United States v. Jones, 475 F.2d 723, 730 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 841, 94 S.Ct. 96, 38 L.Ed.2d 77 (1973). 42 Under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, in addition to proving voluntariness, the government must show a sufficient break in events to undermine the inference that the consent to search was caused by the fourth amendment violation. Oregon v. Elstad, --- U.S. at ----, 105 S.Ct. at 1292. The focus on the causal connection between the illegality and the consent serves the policies and interests of the fourth amendment because, when the causal connection is close, not only is exclusion of the evidence more likely to deter similar police misconduct in the future, but also use of the evidence is more likely to compromise the integrity of the courts. Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 218, 99 S.Ct. at 2259; see also Taylor v. Alabama, 457 U.S. at 690, 102 S.Ct. at 2667; Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 599, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2259, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975). The Supreme Court, however, has consistently refused to adopt a per se or but for rule that would render inadmissible any evidence obtained through a chain of causation with the illegal arrest; rather, whether the link between the illegality and the evidence requires the application of the exclusionary rule must be determined by balancing the rule's policies with  'the strong interest ... of making available to the trier of fact all concededly relevant and trustworthy evidence which either party seeks to adduce.'  United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. 268, 278, 98 S.Ct. 1054, 1061, 55 L.Ed.2d 268 (1978) (quoting Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. at 450-51, 94 S.Ct. at 2367). 43 In Brown v. Illinois, the Supreme Court identified several factors to be considered in determining whether a consent to search was obtained by exploitation of the illegal seizure: (1) [t]he temporal proximity of the arrest and the [consent], (2) the presence of intervening circumstances, and (3) the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct. 422 U.S. at 603-04, 95 S.Ct. at 2261-62; see also Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 218, 99 S.Ct. at 2259. The relative importance of each of these factors in any particular case of course depends on the circumstances of that case. When the challenged item is the result of a volitional act, for example, often the primary criterion is whether the act was sufficiently one of free will to purge the primary taint. See Rawlings v. Kentucky, 448 U.S. 98, 108-09, 100 S.Ct. 2556, 2563, 65 L.Ed.2d 633 (1980); United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. at 276-78, 98 S.Ct. at 1060-61. Even in such cases, however, attenuation analysis must take into account all facts that have some impact on the strengths of the respective interests. See Rawlings v. Kentucky, 448 U.S. at 108-09, 100 S.Ct. at 2563; 3 W. Lafave, Search and Seizure Sec. 11.4(a) (1978); J. Hall, Search & Seizure Sec. 22:2-:3 (1982). 44 At oral argument, the government suggested that, because at least by the time Cherry consented to the second search probable cause existed for his detention, attenuation analysis need not be applied to the facts of this case. Citing the Third Circuit case of United States ex rel. Wright v. Cuyler, 563 F.2d 627 (3d Cir.1977), in support of its claim, the government apparently argues that the intervening advent of probable cause for Cherry's detention was per se sufficient to render the consent free from taint. 23 This argument is without merit. The acquiring of probable cause by the police between an illegal arrest and a suspect's consent to search neither logically breaks the causal chain between the two as a matter of course nor in view of the purposes of the exclusionary rule necessarily attenuates that relation to the point that the evidence need not be excluded. As we have seen, the theory underlying the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine is that, when there is a close causal connection between the prior police misconduct and the availability of the challenged evidence, the evidence should be suppressed since the deterrent value of exclusion outweighs the competing interest in having all probative evidence put before the factfinder. If a suspect's consent to search following an illegal arrest were to be free from taint merely because at the moment of consent his detention was lawful, regardless of the egregiousness of the fourth amendment violation or its role in obtaining the consent, arrests made without probable cause would be encouraged, especially in those cases where the police have strong reason to believe that they will obtain probable cause at some point in the investigation independently of the unlawful detention. The intervening discovery of probable cause to support a suspect's detention, by itself, cannot assure in every case that the Fourth Amendment violation has not been unduly exploited. Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. at 603, 95 S.Ct. at 2261. 45 Yet, while we decline to hold that the curing of an illegal arrest purges the taint of a subsequent consent as a matter of law, we think that the intervening acquisition of probable cause is an important attenuating factor in the analysis. To the extent that a suspect's consent to search is attributable to his lawful detention and not the prior illegal arrest, the causal connection between the initial illegality and the consent is weakened. As a result, the balance of competing interests underlying the exclusionary rule correspondingly tips in favor of a finding of attenuation and the admission of the derivative evidence. See United States v. Manuel, 706 F.2d 908, 911-12 (9th Cir.1983) (treating advent of probable cause as one intervening factor in attenuation analysis); United States v. Nooks, 446 F.2d 1283, 1287-88 (5th Cir.) (same), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 945, 92 S.Ct. 299, 30 L.Ed.2d 261 (1971); cf. Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U.S. 356, 92 S.Ct. 1620, 32 L.Ed.2d 152 (1972) (taint purged from lineup following illegal arrest because of intervening hearing before magistrate at which suspect was advised of rights and the alleged arrest was converted into lawful detention). 24 46 Because the validity of a consent to search obtained by the police subsequent to an illegal arrest is an issue that must be resolved in the first instance by the district court, see United States v. Robinson, 625 F.2d at 1220; United States v. Wilson, 569 F.2d 392, 397 (5th Cir.1978), we vacate the judgment of the district court and remand the issue, along with the fifth amendment issue described above, to the district court for complete findings and conclusions under the appropriate standards. If the district court determines that Cherry's consent to the second search was voluntary within the meaning of the fourth amendment and untainted by Cherry's prior illegal arrest or by a violation of the fifth amendment, the judgment must be reinstated. If the district court finds otherwise, it must suppress the evidence and discharge the defendant.