Opinion ID: 1620393
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The totality of the circumstances demonstrate the confession was voluntary.

Text: Next, defendant claims that the statement should have been excluded in its entirety because the state failed to establish that it had been given freely and voluntarily. In making the argument, defendant points to numerous factors which he maintains reveal the coercive nature of the interrogation. Before the state may introduce a confession into evidence, it must demonstrate that the statement was free and voluntary and not the product of fear, duress, intimidation, menace, threats, inducements or promises. La. R.S. 15:451; La. C.Cr.P. art. 703(D); State v. Simmons, 443 So.2d 512, 515 (La. 1983). If a statement is a product of custodial interrogation, the state additionally must show that the person was advised before questioning of his right to remain silent; that any statement he makes may be used against him; and, that he has a right to counsel, either retained or appointed. Miranda v. Arizona, supra . When claims of police misconduct are raised, the state must specifically rebut the allegations. State v. Vessell, 450 So.2d 938, 942-943 (La. 1984). A trial court's finding as to the free and voluntary nature of a statement carries great weight and will not be disturbed unless not supported by the evidence. State v. Benoit, 440 So.2d 129, 131 (La. 1983); State v. English, 582 So.2d 1358, 1364 (La.App. 2nd Cir. 1991), writ denied, 584 So.2d 1172 (La. 1991). Credibility determinations lie within the sound discretion of the trial court and its rulings will not be disturbed unless clearly contrary to the evidence. Vessell, supra at 943. When deciding whether a statement is knowing and voluntary, a court considers the totality of circumstances under which it is made, and any inducement is merely one factor in the analysis. State v. Lavalais, 95-0320, p. 6 (La. 11/25/96), 685 So.2d 1048, 1053; State v. Lewis, 539 So.2d 1199, 1205 (La. 1989); State v. Thomas, 461 So.2d 1253 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1984), writ denied, 464 So.2d 1375 (La. 1985).
Defendant maintains that the record did not establish that he made a knowing waiver of his Miranda rights. Specifically, he claims that because officers did not immediately tell him that they were investigating him for the series of murders, but rather initially indicated that they were merely interested in his spending habits, he could not make an informed decision about whether to invoke his Miranda rights. Indeed, a review of the lengthy interrogation reveals that for the first hour-and-one-half of the interview by Detective Hymel's own calculation, the officers focused primarily on defendant's spending habits and purported winnings playing video poker. [11] However, as discussed above, defendant was told at the outset of the interview that he was not under arrest and the circumstances of the interview demonstrated that his presence at the sheriff's substation was entirely voluntary. Given that defendant was not in custody at the time, he was not even entitled to Miranda warnings. In addition, several weeks before the interrogation, Detective Toney spoke to defendant on the telephone and informed him that he wanted to discuss the unsolved homicides in Ascension Parish. Further, Toney told him before the interview that they were going to discuss the same things they talked about over the telephone. In any event, a transcript of the interview reveals that officers did administer Miranda warnings before the interview commenced; that defendant indicated that he understood his rights; and that he wished to waive them. There exists no requirement that the state advise a defendant that he is a suspect in a first-degree murder for him to execute a knowing waiver of rights. See, e.g., Patterson v. Illinois, 487 U.S. 285, 108 S.Ct. 2389, 101 L.Ed.2d 261 (1988) ( Miranda warnings alone sufficiently apprise the defendant of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel and of the consequences of abandoning that right; no additional or refined warnings needed in this context); but see State v. Cousan, 94-2503, p. 6 (La. 11/25/96), 684 So.2d 382, 386-7 (failure of the police to inform a suspect of the subject matter of interrogation is certainly a relevant factor in reviewing the totality of the circumstances under which defendant made the incriminating remarks.); cf. La.C.Cr.P. art. 218.1 (when a person has been arrested, the police must advise him fully of the reason for his arrest or detention . . . ). Finally, before defendant confessed to any of the murders, he was read his rights a second time before he agreed to take a polygraph and he, himself, stated that the purpose of the examination was that the officers were trying to find out where I get my money from and talking to me about these people [that] got killed? Thus, defendant's claim that he did not make a knowing waiver of his rights because he was misled concerning the nature of the state's investigation does not warrant relief.
In the next portion of his claim concerning the court's ruling denying the motion to suppress, defendant maintains that given the length of the interrogation, he lacked the capacity to give a voluntary statement concerning the crimes. The record demonstrates that defendant was at the sheriff's substation for approximately 12 hours, interrogated all the while by various police officers. However, arguably at least, because defendant accompanied the officers to the station voluntarily and denied involvement in any of the murders for the first six hours, he was in police custody for only approximately half of that time. [12] In any event, nothing suggests that the duration of the interrogation, without more, rendered it involuntary. In Ashcraft v. Tennessee, 322 U.S. 143, 154, 64 S.Ct. 921, 88 L.Ed. 1192 (1944), the Supreme Court held that 36 hours of virtually continuous interrogation was inherently coercive. Aside from Ashcraft, however, the Court has never clarified the point at which the length of an interrogation renders it inherently coercive and thereby involuntary. In most state cases, confessions obtained after quite lengthy interrogations have been held to be voluntary and hence admissible. See e.g., State v. Lapointe, 237 Conn. 694, 678 A.2d 942, 959-60 (1996) (holding that nine-hour interrogation of brain damaged defendant did not render resulting confession involuntary); Burk v. State, 848 P.2d 225, 233 (Wyo. 1993) (holding that statements obtained from defendant who was questioned from 8:50 a.m. through the entire day and night were properly admitted). In addition, while not dispositive on the issue of whether the confession was illegally coerced, the fact that officers administered Miranda warnings nine times during the interrogation weighs in favor of the state on the issue of voluntariness. See e.g., United States v. Huerta, 239 F.3d 865, 871-72 (7th Cir. 2001) (confession voluntary in part because defendant received Miranda warnings three times and executed written waiver); Rook v. Rice, 783 F.2d 401, 404-05 (4th Cir. 1986) (confession voluntary despite defendant's low intelligence, 7th grade education, and statement by police that the only thing that could help him was to tell the truth because he was given Miranda warnings twice and indicated that he understood them). In this case, defendant made several trips to the restroom and drank sodas throughout the interrogation. Although defendant expressed weariness, stated that he was cold, and indicated that he was suffering from back pain intermittently throughout the lengthy interview, he never requested to terminate the interrogation nor did he ever invoke any of his Miranda rights. In these circumstances, defendant does not demonstrate coercion resulting from the protracted duration of the interrogation.
Next, defendant claims that mental and physical duress during the interrogation caused him to confess to the various offenses involuntarily. In support, he points to several instances in which either he or the officers mentioned that he appeared cold, that his back, head or chest was hurting, or that he appeared tired during the interview. Defendant also claims that the officers coerced his confession by making several references to God, religion and his deceased mother. Finally, defendant complains because he was denied the opportunity to smoke a cigarette at one point during the interrogation because the building where the interview occurred did not allow it. While defendant's factual allegations are accurate, he does not show that any of the state's conduct coerced his admissions or rendered the confession involuntary. [13] Our review of the videotapes and the verbatim transcript does not show the officers exercising any type of coercion which would at all indicate that this confession was involuntary. To the contrary, the vast majority of the interview was extremely benign on the part of the officers and Blank was treated very well throughout. In response to defendant's specific examples of coercive conduct, it is evident from the record that defendant did not request food during the interview, during which, notably, none of the interrogators stopped to eat a meal. Despite intermittent statements expressing fatigue and or physical discomfort, defendant never requested to terminate the interview. Moreover, for the most part, officers accommodated defendant when possible, providing him drinks, allowing him to use the rest-room and heating the interrogation room. While at first the officers denied defendant's request to smoke, after he smoked a cigarette while he was alone in the bathroom, they continued to let him smoke, and he was allowed to smoke before he confessed to any crimes. As to the references to defendant's deceased mother, appeals to a defendant's emotions and/or religious beliefs typically do not render an ensuing confession involuntary. See e.g., Johnson v. Trigg, 28 F.3d 639, 644-45 (7th Cir. 1994) (confession voluntary even though 14-year-old defendant of below average intelligence saw police arrest terminally ill mother before confessing); United States v. Miller, 984 F.2d 1028, 1031-32 (9th Cir. 1993) (confession voluntary even though officer, a Mormon bishop, lectured to Mormon defendant that religious tenets required repentance and restitution for wrongdoing). This claim lacks merit.
Defendant also claims that the officers' relentless exhortations that he tell the truth in conjunction with false suggestions indicating that they possessed forensic evidence of his guilt, illegally coerced the confession. [14] Defendant claims that during the interrogation, officers used the word truth no less than 30 times, including several communications in which they urged that he answer their questions truthfully. Courts have routinely held that a mild exhortation to tell the truth, or a remark that if the defendant cooperates the officer will do what he can or things will go easier, will not negate the voluntary nature of a confession. State v. Petterway, 403 So.2d 1157, 1159-60 (La. 1981); State v. Magee, 93-0643, pp. 3-4 (La.App. 3d Cir. 10/5/94), 643 So.2d 497, 499; State v. English, supra at 1364. In this case, although the officers repeatedly admonished defendant to tell the truth throughout the interrogation, they did not promise him anything in exchange for the confession except for the suggestion that he could clear his conscience. Notably, in State v. Lavalais, supra at 1053, this Court held that an officer's comments to the defendant that he would likely receive more favorable treatment if he confessed as opposed to failing a polygraph examination did not constitute inducements rendering the subsequent confession involuntary. See also State v. Rochester, 301 S.C. 196, 391 S.E.2d 244, 247 (1990) (advice to defendant from polygraph examiner that it would be in his best interest to tell the truth does not render ensuing statement inadmissible). In this situation, defendant fails to show the existence of coercion rendering the statement involuntary.
Defendant also maintains that officers illegally coerced the confession because not only was he pressured into submitting to the polygraph exam here, a factor affecting voluntariness, but the results were then used to further intimidate him, thus taking him farther afield from the realm of free and voluntary. The record reveals that although defendant expressed some reluctance about taking the polygraph, Agent Sparks advised him that he was not required to submit to the examination and administered Miranda warnings. Defendant ultimately waived his rights and submitted to the polygraph test. This Court has upheld the admissibility of a defendant's statement in similar circumstances. See State v. Green, 443 So.2d 531, 536 (La. 1983) (under totality of circumstances, when defendant was advised of his rights before polygraph test, when defendant had not previously asserted his right to counsel, and when defendant's attorney had agreed to polygraph and set no parameters for its conduct, defendant voluntarily waived his right to counsel although defendant was not readvised of his Miranda rights after polygraphist confronted defendant at conclusion of test with his failure to tell the truth which led to confession). Generally speaking, jurisprudence from other jurisdictions also suggests that confessions are not rendered involuntary because they have been made in anticipation of, during, or following a polygraph examination. See e.g. Wyrick v. Fields, 459 U.S. 42, 48-49, 103 S.Ct. 394, 397, 74 L.Ed.2d 214 (1982) (Per Curiam) (post-polygraph inculpatory statements are admissible if the defendant waived his Miranda rights before taking the test); United States v. Little Bear, 583 F.2d 411, 414 (8th Cir. 1978) (despite concern over procedure used by agents where record did not indicate that defendant could refuse to take polygraph test, discontinue it at any point or decline to answer questions, evidence supported trial court's conclusion that she confessed voluntarily); State v. Morton, 155 N.J. 383, 715 A.2d 228, 262 (1998) (subjecting defendant to polygraph did not impugn voluntariness of confession when interrogating officers advised him of right to refuse test, to discontinue test, and to refuse to answer any questions); Lee v. State, 338 So.2d 395, 397 (Miss. 1976) (confession made following polygraph examination held voluntary when defendant consented to examination and was adequately advised of his rights prior to administration of test). In addition, Detective Hymel's statement that we got some serious talking we need to do if defendant refused the polygraph did not render the subsequent confession involuntary as Agent Sparks subsequently administered Miranda warnings and informed defendant that he could refuse the polygraph before he submitted to the examination. Cf. State v. Istre, 407 So.2d 1183, 1187 (La. 1981) (reh'g denied) (officer telling defendant that he would be taken upstairs and booked if he did not want to talk did not render confession involuntary). Accordingly, defendant does not show that the court erred when it deemed the confession admissible merely because it occurred after he voluntarily submitted to the polygraph examination.