Opinion ID: 553880
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Indicia of Custody

Text: 23 A consistent line of inquiry has developed from this case-by-case approach which has identified several common indicia of custody. These indicia of custody relate to the specific police practices employed during questioning which tend to either mitigate or aggravate an atmosphere of custodial interrogation. This inquiry into the indicia of custody has generally focused on an examination of (1) whether the suspect was informed at the time of questioning that the questioning was voluntary, that the suspect was free to leave or request the officers to do so, or that the suspect was not considered under arrest; (2) whether the suspect possessed unrestrained freedom of movement during questioning; (3) whether the suspect initiated contact with authorities or voluntarily acquiesced to official requests to respond to questions; (4) whether strong arm tactics or deceptive stratagems were employed during questioning; (5) whether the atmosphere of the questioning was police dominated; or, (6) whether the suspect was placed under arrest at the termination of the questioning. 24 While the foregoing list is decidedly non-exhaustive, the presence or absence of these particular indicia of custody have been influential in this court's assessment of the totality of the circumstances surrounding an official interrogation. The first three of these factors may be fairly characterized as mitigating factors, that is to say the affirmative presence of one or more of these factors during questioning would tend to mitigate the existence of custody at the time of the questioning. Conversely, the remaining three factors may be characterized as coercive factors, which is to say that the affirmative presence of one or more of these factors during questioning would tend to aggravate the existence of custody. It is not necessary to a finding of custody that all of the foregoing indicia be presented by the factual circumstances of a case, United States v. Longbehn, 850 F.2d 450, 452-53 (8th Cir.1988), and a particularly strong showing with respect to one factor may compensate for a deficiency with respect to other factors. South Dakota v. Long, 465 F.2d 65, 70 (8th Cir.1972). Realizing that the available means of coercion are as vast as the circumstances in which it may arise, we emphasize that the foregoing list is merely intended to be representative of those indicia of custody most frequently cited by this and other courts when undergoing the prescribed totality of the circumstances analysis. Lanier, 838 F.2d at 285; Helmel, 769 F.2d at 1320.
25 We turn now to examine how this framework has been applied to cases in this and other circuits. As previously noted, this Court is concerned with the suspect's subjective belief that his freedom of action is curtailed to a degree associated with formal arrest and whether that belief is objectively reasonable under the circumstances. Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 439, 104 S.Ct. at 3150, quoting, Beheler, 463 U.S. at 1125, 103 S.Ct. at 3520. 26
27 The most obvious and effective means of demonstrating that a suspect has not been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of ... freedom of action, Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444, 86 S.Ct. at 1612, is for the police to inform the suspect that an arrest is not being made and that the suspect may terminate the interview at will. Where a suspect has been so advised, custody has frequently been found to not exist. Davis v. Allsbrooks, 778 F.2d 168, 171 (4th Cir.1985) (informing a suspect that he is not under arrest is one factor frequently considered to show lack of custody), citing, Oregon v. Mathiason, 429 U.S. 492, 495, 97 S.Ct. 711, 714, 50 L.Ed.2d 714 (1977); Helmel, 769 F.2d at 1306 (significant to finding of lack of custody that [the suspect] was specifically informed that he was not under arrest). 4 An important factor noted by this Court in finding an absence of custody in United States v. Jones, a case factually similar to this one, was that Jones was informed that she was not under arrest and that she need not answer any questions. Jones, 630 F.2d at 616. By the same token, the absence of police advisement that the suspect is not under formal arrest, or that the suspect is at liberty to decline to answer questions, has been identified as an important indicium of the existence of a custodial setting. See Minnick v. Mississippi, --- U.S. ----, ----, 111 S.Ct. 486, 492, 112 L.Ed.2d 489 (1990) (Miranda implicated by formal interview which petitioner was compelled to attend); Carter, 884 F.2d at 368 (custody where suspect was not told he was free to leave or that he did not have to answer questions). 5 28
29 We have often looked upon the lack of restraint on a suspect's freedom of movement during questioning, the second indicium of custody, as a factor indicating absence of custody. Circumstances of custody are frequently obviated where the suspect's freedom of action is not curtailed during questioning. In Jorgensen this Court found significant the fact that during questioning the interviewing officers allowed Jorgensen to go by himself to an unlocked, unguarded section of the F.B.I. offices to speak to his brother. We stated that [t]his kind of latitude is clearly inconsistent with custodial interrogation. Jorgensen, 871 F.2d at 729; Beckwith, 425 U.S. at 343, 96 S.Ct. at 1614 (no custody where suspect permitted to move about his home unaccompanied). 6 This second factor is related to the first factor in that both concern the suspect's liberty during questioning and the suspect's subjective assessment of the circumstances. Though it is often the case that suspects are escorted or chaperoned during questioning for reasons unrelated to custody, as in this case where Agent Waldie testified that he was concerned for the safety of himself and his partner, the relevant inquiry is the effect on the suspect, Carter, 884 F.2d at 373, citing, Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 422, 104 S.Ct. at 3141. The bare fact of physical restraint does not itself invoke Miranda, (Wilson v. Coon, 808 F.2d 688, 689 (8th Cir.1987)), only that restraint which is of a degree associated with formal arrest. Beheler, 463 U.S. at 1125, 103 S.Ct. at 3520. We realize that the likely effect on a suspect of being placed under guard during questioning, or told to remain in the sight of interrogating officials, is to associate these restraints with a formal arrest. Carter, 884 F.2d at 372 (custody where suspect told just stay here); Long, 465 F.2d at 68 (custody where suspect continually chaperoned). 7 30
31 The third indicium of custody concerns whether the interview was instigated by authorities or whether the suspect initiated contact or voluntarily acquiesced to official questions. As noted in Miranda, custodial interrogation [means] questioning initiated by law enforcement officers. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444, 86 S.Ct. at 1612 (emphasis added). Applying this fundamental precept of Miranda to cases in this circuit, this Court has frequently found custody lacking where suspects take the initiative to offer statements or voluntarily arrange for questioning. Dockery, 736 F.2d at 1234 (no custody where suspect initiated the interview); Beckwith, 425 U.S. at 342, 96 S.Ct. at 1612 (no custody where suspect invited agents into house). 8 Conversely, when the confrontation between the suspect and the criminal justice system is instigated at the direction of law enforcement authorities, rather than the suspect, custody is more likely to exist. Longbehn, 850 F.2d at 451 (custodial interrogation initiated when police confronted suspect at firing range); Carter, 884 F.2d at 369 (custodial interrogation initiated when police confronted suspect at work); see also, Minnick, --- U.S. at ----, 111 S.Ct. at 490 (prior invocation of fifth amendment privilege mitigated where the accused himself initiates further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police). 9 32
33 Police deployment of strong arm tactics or deceptive stratagems during interrogation, number four in the list of indicia of custody enumerated above, is a practice widely condemned in American law. The litany of pressure-tactics available to law enforcement, and their proven effectiveness in extracting confessions, are vividly described in the Miranda opinion and were the impetus for the Miranda decision itself. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 466, 86 S.Ct. at 1624. Because such strong arm tactics are more generally associated with formal arrest than with an informal encounter with police, the use of such tactics is identified as an indicium of custody. Beraun-Panez, 812 F.2d at 580 (custodial interrogation where officers confronted suspect with false or misleading witness statements, employed Mutt and Jeff routine, and took advantage of suspect's insecurities about his alien status). It goes without saying that a strong presumption of impropriety attaches to any circumstances where this Court detects the use of coercive interrogation techniques to obtain confessions. Carter, 884 F.2d at 371 (no good faith exception to inadvertent use of coercive interrogation tactics because inquiry concerns the effect of the interrogation techniques on the suspect). An interrogation can still be custodial even though no strong-arm tactics are used, Longbehn, 850 F.2d at 451-53, but the absence of such tactics is a factor which can assist us in reaching an objective conclusion that the suspect could not have associated the questioning with formal arrest. Jones, 630 F.2d at 616; Dockery, 736 F.2d at 1234. 34
35 An interrogation which occurs in an atmosphere dominated by the police, the fifth indicium of custody, is more likely to be viewed as custodial than one which does not. Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 438, 104 S.Ct. at 3149. The Miranda court was deeply concerned with the effect of an incommunicado, police dominated atmosphere on a criminal suspect's will to resist self-incrimination during interrogation. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 451, 86 S.Ct. at 1615 (1966). The question is whether the entire context of the questioning, including such considerations as place and length of the interrogation, demonstrates that the course of the investigation was police dominated. 10 36 Other circumstances which indicate police domination of the custodial surroundings concern whether the police assume control of the interrogation site and dictate the course of conduct followed by the [suspect] or other persons present at the scene. Jones, 630 F.2d at 616. 11 Where the conduct of the police leads a suspect to believe that the police have taken full control of the scene, then we are more likely to recognize the existence of custody. A frequently recurring example of police domination concerns the removal of the suspect from the presence of family, friends, or colleagues who might lend moral support during the questioning and deter a suspect from making inculpatory statements, an established interrogation practice noted by the Miranda court. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 451, 86 S.Ct. at 1615. Officers diminish the public character of, and assert their dominion over, an interrogation site by removing a suspect from the presence of third persons who could lend moral support. Carter, 884 F.2d at 372 (police domination demonstrated when suspect isolated from co-workers who may have provided moral support); Beraun-Panez, 812 F.2d at 582 (agents interrogating rancher in pasture demonstrated domination of interrogation by stopping co-worker from approaching suspect); Jorgensen, 871 F.2d at 729 (atmosphere not police dominated when suspect permitted to speak with brother in private during questioning). When police resort to domineering practices, we find there exists a greater probability that an objective, reasonable person would feel in custody during the interrogation.
ANALYSIS OF EIGHTH CIRCUIT CASES 37 Four cases best reveal our application of the foregoing analysis to police interviews such as the one conducted in this case: United States v. Helmel, 769 F.2d 1306 (8th Cir.1985); United States v. Jones, 630 F.2d 613 (8th Cir.1980); United States v. Carter, 884 F.2d 368 (8th Cir.1989); and South Dakota v. Long, 465 F.2d 65 (8th Cir.1972). All four cases concern the custodial nature of police questioning occurring in surroundings familiar to the suspect: Helmel, Jones, and Long all specifically address interviews conducted at the suspect's place of residence while Carter concerns a workplace interview. We first address the mitigating factors in each case and then turn to the coercive factors. 12 38 In finding an absence of custody in Helmel, the Court specifically addressed the first two factors and indicia of custody when it stated that we consider it significant that [the suspect] was specifically informed by the agents that he was not under arrest ... and had free movement within the house. Helmel, 769 F.2d at 1320. We also specifically noted that interrogation was not initiated by law enforcement but that the suspect responded to the request of his own free will. Helmel, 769 F.2d at 1320. After affirmatively finding the presence of all three mitigating factors, we further found the absence of any coercive factors. No strong arm tactics were used during the forty-five minute questioning and the fact that one agent answered all incoming calls during the questioning did not create a police dominated, coercive environment. Helmel, 769 F.2d at 1320. The sixth factor has no application here in light of the fact that the suspect was specifically informed that no arrest was contemplated at that time. 39 In reaching the same conclusion in Jones as we did in Helmel we addressed the first two mitigating factors and found it significant that Jones had been informed that she was not under arrest and that she need not answer any questions ... [and] had not been subject to police escort. Jones, 630 F.2d at 616. With respect to the third factor, Jones invited officers into her house and voluntarily submitted to questioning after being informed that she was free to refuse. Jones, 630 F.2d at 615. We found no evidence in the record of the use of coercive factors or strong arm tactics, and specifically found that there had been no commands by interrogating agents intended to dictate the course of conduct followed by the defendant or any other evidence of a police controlled environment. Jones, 630 F.2d at 616. As in Helmel the sixth factor has no application here. 13 40 Applying the same analysis in Carter we came to the opposite conclusion as in Jones and Helmel. In Carter there were no mitigating factors present. Carter was not told he was free to leave or that he did not have to answer questions. Carter, 884 F.2d at 368. He was not permitted unrestrained freedom of action during the interview, but instead was told to remain seated and to just stay here. Carter, 884 F.2d at 368. The authorities, rather than Carter, initiated the questioning by summoning Carter to the office of the president of the bank where he worked. We also found evidence of coercive factors. Strong arm tactics such as the Mutt and Jeff routine were used. The interview occurred out of public view, away from co-workers who may have provided moral support, in police dominated, unfamiliar surroundings. Additionally, Carter was confronted with damning evidence of guilt. Carter, 884 F.2d at 370. The deficiency of mitigating factors in Carter, combined with the accumulation of coercive factors, demonstrated an intimidating atmosphere of custody which required an adequate warning of the suspect's constitutional rights under Miranda prior to questioning. Carter, 884 F.2d at 370. 41 In South Dakota v. Long we found that the totality of the circumstances indicated custody where the restrictions on the suspect's freedom of action, and evidence of police domination, were so strong as to outweigh the mitigating effect of Miranda-like warnings given to the suspect. Questioning was first initiated by police when Long was pulled over while driving his car. The officers searched the car and then instructed Long to follow the patrol car to the sheriff's office for questioning in connection with a burglary investigation. Long was first questioned at the sheriff's office, permitted to leave to keep an appointment, accompanied by an officer, and questioning was resumed afterward at Long's dorm room. From the time of the initial confrontation at the police station to the final questioning in Long's dormitory room, Long was under continual police escort. Long, 465 F.2d at 65. The sheriff's requirement that Long continually remain in the presence of law enforcement authorities that afternoon was a restriction of Long's freedom of a degree associated with formal arrest. Beheler, 463 U.S. at 1125, 103 S.Ct. at 3520. Though the interrogation occurred largely in Long's own residence, we found this had the effect of isolating Long from public view and from friends who may have provided moral support, and created an environment of police domination. Beraun-Panez, 812 F.2d at 582. 14 42 The facts of this case stand in contrast to those in Helmel and Jones, where we declined to find custody, and more closely resemble those presented in Carter and Long. In this case, we find none of the mitigating factors cited in the list of indicia of custody, as in Helmel and Jones, but most of the coercive factors present in Carter and Long. Griffin did not initiate or arrange for the questioning as was done by the suspects in Helmel and Jones. Griffin himself did not invite the law enforcement into the house. He was not told he had the option to reject their request for an interview. Instead, the agents were admitted by Griffin's stepfather and Griffin was confronted in the hallway of his own home where questioning was initiated by the F.B.I. agents. Unlike the suspects in Helmel and Jones, Griffin was not informed that he was not under arrest, that he was at liberty to request the agents to leave, or that he could refuse to answer questions. 43 Griffin's freedom of action was restrained to a degree commonly associated with formal arrest during questioning when he was accompanied by an officer when he retrieved cigarettes from other rooms in the house and was told to remain in view of the agents at all times. Though Agent Waldie testified that the purpose of escorting Griffin was for safety concerns, this fact was not disclosed to Griffin at the time. We must consider the effect on the suspect of the agents' actions and we find that appellant could not reasonably have understood that he was free to do as he pleased when he was not permitted to go to another room of his own home without being accompanied by an a officer. Carter, 884 F.2d at 368. 44 The record does not reflect that strong arm tactics were employed in the questioning of Griffin; however, we note that we do not expect to find these tactics employed in every case, particularly when authority dictates that they should not be employed in any case. Strong arm tactics and deceptive stratagems are one indicium of custody, and are not a pre-requisite to a finding of custody. Longbehn, 850 F.2d at 452-53. Questioning which occurs in the suspect's own home may provide a margin of comfort, but, as previously noted, the setting of the interrogation is not so important to the inquiry as the question of police domination of that setting. Beraun-Panez, 812 F.2d at 582. Here we find ample evidence of a police dominated, custodial environment in the fact that as soon as Griffin arrived at home the agents took control of the scene. Griffin was met by the agents in the hallway as he came in the door and was removed to the dining room of the house for privacy. By sending Griffin's parents away, the agents asserted their dominion over the interrogation site, isolated Griffin from family who may have provided moral support, and eliminated any last vestige of a public interrogation. Beraun-Panez, 812 F.2d at 582; Carter, 884 F.2d at 368. Any objective reasonable person would conclude from these actions that the authorities were now in complete control of the defendant. Indeed the agents did create an atmosphere which caused Griffin to be fearful. 15 45 Finally, we believe Griffin's arrest at the conclusion of the interview is objective evidence which tends to support the reasonableness of Griffin's subjective belief that he was in custody from the inception of the encounter and that his arrest was imminent. Griffin had already implicated himself prior to questioning with his volunteered (and hence admissible) statement that [t]he gun wasn't loaded. The level of police domination of his home, the restrictions on his actions during questioning, together with the fact that the agents never informed Griffin that he would not be arrested, reflects a pattern of conduct on the part of the officers that any reasonable person would associate with formal arrest. 46 Under these circumstances we are unable to agree with the district court's conclusion that Griffin could not have reasonably believed that the interrogation was custodial. We find that the interrogation of Griffin occurred in a custodial environment where he was improperly deprived of his right to receive Miranda warnings prior to making any kind of statement to the police. 47 We have undertaken an extended analysis for the reason that this case presents to us for the third time in as many years a situation where we must overrule a district court's ruling on the question of custody. See United States v. Longbehn, 850 F.2d 450 (1988); United States v. Carter, 884 F.2d 368 (1989). 48 [T]he Miranda decision was prompted in large measure by judicial dissatisfaction with the difficulties and uncertainties inherent in case-by-case voluntariness determinations. Carter, 884 F.2d at 374. We note that in Minnick v. Mississippi the Supreme Court recently re-emphasized the advantages of the clear and unequivocal guidelines provided by the bright line rule of Miranda. Minnick, --- U.S. at ----, 111 S.Ct. at 489-90, quoting, Arizona v. Roberson, 486 U.S. 675, 682, 108 S.Ct. 2093, 2097, 100 L.Ed.2d 704 (1988). A major purpose of the Court's opinion in Miranda ... was to give concrete constitutional guidelines for law enforcement agencies to follow. As we have stressed on numerous occasions, one of the principal advantages ... is the clarity of that rule and the ease of its application. Arizona v. Roberson, 486 U.S. 675, 108 S.Ct. 2093, 2097, 100 L.Ed.2d 704 (1988), citing, Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 430, 104 S.Ct. at 3145. The motivation and purpose of the Miranda opinion, as well as the ease of its application, are undermined if its effect is to simply substitute the endless chain of voluntariness questions that crowded court dockets prior to its announcement with a new class of case-by-case determinations on the issue of what is custody. While not intending to establish a bright line rule of custody, the analysis we use is intended to provide law enforcement and prosecutors with some insight into the appropriate indicia of custody which should be taken into consideration when analyzing the totality of circumstances.