Opinion ID: 2332641
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: application to the facts at bar

Text: [¶ 46] I would hold, first, that on the facts found by the trial court, the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination does not apply to prevent the admission in evidence of statements made by Rees because he was neither compelled nor coerced into making those statements by any other person. [13] [¶ 47] I would further hold that Maine's due process clause does not address the admissibility of an out-of-court statement of a suspect when no conduct of a state actor has been a causal factor in the making of that statement. Here, however, the statements at issue were, in fact, given to a police officer. The conduct of the officer, even if it was not misconduct, may constitute an overreaching for purposes of a due process analysis, if the defendant was understood to be suffering from a physical or mental illness and the officer took advantage of that disability, however subtly; to obtain a confession. [¶ 48] Because the motion court understood Caouette to require suppression of the statement whether or not a state actor had engaged in actions that failed to comport with our motions of due process, that is, actions that demonstrated governmental fair play, it did not address itself to the actions of the officers other than to determine that there was no misconduct. If, given the defendant's state of mind or health, the officer's conduct, although not rising to the level of misconduct, could reasonably be understood to constitute an overreaching, then the court may invoke its judicial authority to suppress those statements pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment. The court's inquiry must be focused on whether the interrogations techniques employed by the officer were improper even if they were improper only because, in the particular circumstances of the case, the confession is unlikely to have been the product of a free and rational will. Miller v. Fenton, 474 U.S. 104, 110, 106 S.Ct. 445, 88 L.Ed.2d 405 (1985). [¶ 49] Finally, although the facts found by the court do not appear to rise to the level prohibiting admissibility under the Rules of Evidence, on remand I would instruct the court to consider whether the statement is inadmissible on purely evidentiary grounds. [¶ 50] Accordingly, I would remand to the Superior Court to determine (1) whether, considering defendant's mental health, the State has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the police did not overreach, and if so (2) whether the statements, because of the state of Rees's mental health, are so inherently unreliable as to be inadmissible.