Opinion ID: 483878
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Significance of the Prior Coerced Statements

Text: 26 We have not yet decided an appeal involving a statement elicited after a prior involuntary statement and later used in an affidavit for a search warrant. However, this court and the Supreme Court have considered cases where a statement made after a prior involuntary statement was used against the defendant at trial. These cases involve violations of Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. Their reasoning is instructive. 27 When a statement is claimed to be inadmissible as the product of a prior coerced confession the issue is solely one of voluntariness. United States v. Schmidt, 573 F.2d 1057, 1062 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 881, 99 S.Ct. 221, 58 L.Ed.2d 194 (1978); see also, Clewis v. Texas, 386 U.S. 707, 708, 87 S.Ct. 1338, 1339, 18 L.Ed.2d 423 (1967) (the issue is whether, considering the totality of circumstances, the statement was voluntary); Lyons v. Oklahoma, 322 U.S. 596, 603, 64 S.Ct. 1208, 1212, 88 L.Ed. 1481 (1944) (admissibility of the later confession depends on the test--is it voluntary). The following factors have been identified as relevant to the issue of whether a statement made after an involuntary statement is voluntary: (1) a break in the stream of events sufficient to insulate the statement from the effect of all that went on before, Clewis, 386 U.S. at 710, 87 S.Ct. at 1340; (2) inferences as to the continuing effect of the coercive practices which may fairly be drawn from the surrounding circumstances, Lyons, 322 U.S. at 602, 64 S.Ct. at 1212; (3) the time that passes between confessions, the change in the place of interrogations, and the change in identity of the interrogators, Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 310, 105 S.Ct. 1285, 1294, 84 L.Ed.2d 222 (1985); (4) removal of the conditions which preclude the use of the first statement, United States v. Bayer, 331 U.S. 532, 540-41, 67 S.Ct. 1394, 1398, 91 L.Ed. 1654 (1947). 28 Similar considerations have been advanced, under Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963), and its progeny, to determine whether to admit statements or other fruits derived from an illegal arrest or entry in violation of the Fourth Amendment. In order for the causal chain, between the illegal arrest and the statements made subsequent thereto, to be broken, Wong Sun requires not merely that the statement meet the Fifth Amendment standard of voluntariness but that it be sufficiently an act of free will to purge the primary taint. Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 602, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2261, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975) (citation omitted). 29 We need not re-examine the voluntariness of Patterson's second statement to Agent Davis. Patterson stipulated that his statement to Davis was voluntary. When parties have entered into stipulations as to material facts, our duty is to treat such facts as having been established by the clearest proof. Schlemmer v. Provident Life & Accident Ins. Co., 349 F.2d 682, 684 (9th Cir.1965); see also Kealy v. Harter, 682 F.2d 198, 201 (8th Cir.1982) (Voluntary stipulations of fact are conclusive and can be controverted on appeal only under exceptional circumstances.). Therefore, the fact that Pattersons's statements to Agent Davis followed earlier coerced statements does not preclude the use of Patterson's statement in an affidavit for a search warrant. 30 All evidence concerning Patterson is not fruit of the poisonous tree simply because it would not have come to light but for the reprehensible actions of the police in Tijuana. See Wong Sun, 371 U.S. at 487-88, 83 S.Ct. at 417. Agent Davis did not exploit the brutal beating of Patterson that led to Patterson's first statement. He did not know about the beating, nor is it argued that he had reason to know about it. Davis's questions elicited voluntary responses in a manner that purged the primary taint so that the responses could be used in an affidavit to support a search warrant. We express no view as to other uses of Patterson's statements. We limit our review to the unique fact situation and issues before us.