Opinion ID: 302281
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the delay in arraignment

Text: 20 Was the delay in taking the defendant before a magistrate violative of Rule 5 as construed by the Supreme Court in Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449, 77 S.Ct. 1356, 1 L.Ed.2d 1479 (1957), and McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 63 S.Ct. 608, 87 L.Ed. 819, Rehearing denied 319 U.S. 784, 63 S.Ct. 1322, 87 L.Ed. 1727 (1943)? 21 We conclude that the trial court's ruling that the defendant's rights were not violated was correct. In United States v. Chadwick, 415 F.2d 167 (10th Cir. 1969), this court in effect held that time in state custody is not to be computed as contributing to unreasonable delay in taking the defendant before a magistrate unless the state custody was utilized by the federal officers as a device to avoid prompt federal arraignment, contrary to Rule 5(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The court did acknowledge that an in-custody statement obtained in a situation in which state and federal officers were acting in furtherance of a collusive working arrangement would be excluded as in violation of the Mallory-McNabb doctrine. In Chadwick the court, speaking through Judge Murrah, noted that only one case had been cited, that of United States v. Tupper, 168 F.Supp. 907 (W.D.Mo.1958), wherein a court had excluded a pre-arraignment confession based on an improper working arrangement between state and federal authorities. 22 In the case at bar the trial court excluded any statement which might have been made following the placing of the FBI hold on defendant at 6:00 p. m. on May 26. 23 From a careful consideration of all the evidence it does not appear that the delay here was unreasonable from the time of state arrest through the time of obtaining a statement from the accused by the FBI Agent. The FBI was notified between 2:00 and 3:00 p. m. on May 25, 1971, and the Agent responded on May 26 at 9:30 a. m. The distances in rural areas in the Western states give rise to problems quite different from those encountered in the large metropolitan centers, and an FBI agent cannot be expected to be on the ready line so as to instantaneously respond to every call such as that which was made in the present case. Since there was not any long delay, and inasmuch as the statement was not in any way related to the delay-there being no federal-state arrangement to circumvent Mallory-McNabb-we hold that Rule 5 as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Mallory was not violated. 24 In view of our holding it is unnecessary to consider whether there has been a violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3501. This provision is part of the Omnibus Crime Control Act and provides that a confession is not to be inadmissible solely because of delay in bringing the declarant before a magistrate if a confession is on its facts voluntary and made within six hours immediately following arrest or other detention. Provisos in the cited Act make exceptions to the six-hour limitation when transportation and distance problems are present. Section 3501 was intended to liberalize the Mallory and McNabb rule. See Senate Report No. 1097, 1968 U.S. Code Cong. and Admin.News, p. 2112 et seq. This it did. In fact, the mandatory aspects of the Mallory rule were removed and the voluntary standard has been introduced. The ultimate determination is now a matter of trial court discretion. It cannot be said then that Sec. 3501 precludes the reception in evidence of a statement which would be admissible under the Mallory rule. 25 Contrary then to the defendant's contention that confessions obtained in the six hours after arrest make the delay unreasonable in circumstances like those at bar, we conclude that Sec. 3501(c), supra, does not rule out statements which are otherwise admissible under Rule 5 as construed by Mallory and McNabb. 26 There are cases which hold that confessions obtained almost immediately after arrest are inadmissible under the Mallory doctrine. 5 But we are not here dealing with situations found in those cases. This court has always considered the nature of the delay, including distance factors, and its relationship, if any, to the obtaining of the confession.