Opinion ID: 4018584
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Post-Trial Review

Text: Jones appealed to the California Court of Appeal. The court affirmed his conviction in an unpublished decision. It ruled on Jones’s Miranda argument in a single paragraph, reasoning that Jones’s statement that he did not “want to talk no more” was ambiguous in light of the statements he made after: At a single point, midway through the first interview, appellant said, “I don't want to talk no more, man.’ His next sentence, however, was, ‘You don't want to hear what I'm telling you.” Taken in context, considering [Jones’s] willingness to talk with the detectives before and after that point in the interview, [Jones] was expressing frustration with the detectives’ refusal to believe him, rather than unambiguously invoking his right to remain silent. The court thus relied on the fact that Jones’s next sentence after saying he did not want to talk—made in response to officers continuing to question him—made his initial invocation ambiguous. Jones filed a petition for review with JONES V. HARRINGTON 11 the California Supreme Court, which was denied without comment. Jones then filed a federal habeas petition. The magistrate judge filed a Final Report and Recommendation—a report summarily adopted by the district judge—recommending denial of Jones’s petition. Because the district judge adopted the magistrate judge’s report, we look to this report as the decision. But curiously, in granting the certificate of appealability, the district judge’s analysis suggested that the State violated Miranda here. The district judge observed that Jones’s statement was a “seemingly unambiguous” invocation of his right to remain silent. “Petitioner said, ‘I don’t want to talk no more, man.’ Aside from mentioning Miranda by name, what could be clearer?” Like the California Court of Appeal, the magistrate judge’s report held Jones’s request was ambiguous in light of the statements he made after invoking his right to silence. The court also relied on the fact that Jones did not ask to remain silent again after his initial invocation.