Opinion ID: 1196151
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Totality of the Circumstances Inquiry

Text: Having adopted the clear articulation rule, we turn to a discussion of how a trial court must determine whether a suspect's statement is a clear assertion of her right to remain silent. The scope of a trial court's analysis should not be limited to the words as they appear on their face. A trial court should consider the words spoken by the defendant and the plain meaning of those words, but the court should also consider the totality of the circumstances surrounding the statement in order to assess the words in context. We have previously directed trial courts to examine the totality of the circumstances to assess how a reasonable officer in the circumstances would perceive a statement that might be a request for the assistance of counsel. See Romero, 953 P.2d at 555 (finding that a reasonable officer would have understood the statement, I should talk to a lawyer ... because I do want to go to trial on this to be a clear request for counsel given the surrounding circumstances). The legal standard is objectivewhether in the context of question and answer, the suspect's responses reasonably could be construed by a police officer to mean that the suspect wanted a lawyer. Id. at 556. This totality of the circumstances analysis applies equally to the right to remain silent. [5] The trial court must review a wide range of factors on a case-by-case basis in order to consider the totality of the circumstances. The trial court should assess the words spoken by the defendant and the interrogating officer, the officer's response to the suspect's words, the speech patterns of the suspect, the content of the interrogation, the demeanor and tone of the interrogating officer, the suspect's behavior during questioning, the point at which the suspect invoked the right to remain silent, and who was present during the interrogation. See Romero, 953 P.2d at 555-56; People v. Trujillo, 938 P.2d 117, 124 (Colo.1997) (employing similar factors to determine whether custodial interrogation had taken place). A court also might consider the questions that drew the statement as well as the officer's response to the statement. See Johnson, 56 F.3d at 955. Whether an officer's subsequent questions were an attempt to clarify a suspect's wishes may also be part of the totality of the circumstances analysis. The Supreme Court has not required officers to clarify a suspect's ambiguous invocation of rights, although the Court has indicated that it is often prudent police practice to do so. See Davis, 512 U.S. at 461, 114 S.Ct. 2350. In addition, when assessing the totality of the circumstances a trial court may take into account the fact that suspects may not, due to their particular characteristics and the circumstances of the police interview, request an end to questioning in the most sophisticated or legally proper form. See Romero, 953 P.2d at 554 (applying the same principle to requests for counsel). Courts may even take into account a suspect's experience with the criminal justice system, her ability to understand questions, and her ability to verbalize her wants and needs. Cf. id. at 554-55 (noting examples of personal characteristics that may be pertinent to inquiry into clarity of suspect's invocation of right to counsel). The factors we list here are not exhaustive. A trial court need not make specific findings with respect to each of these factors, and no single factor is controlling. A court may consider many or all of these factors, and a court may consider other relevant factors that we have not mentioned, as long as the court demonstrates that it has considered the totality of the circumstances. See Quezada, 731 P.2d at 734 (finding that Mosley factors are not exhaustive of inquiry into whether police scrupulously honor a suspect's right to remain silent, and that totality of circumstances inquiry must be made on case-by-case basis).