Opinion ID: 2339868
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Statements on the Way to the Police Station

Text: Defendant made the second set of inculpatory statements two days later, after he had been released from the hospital and placed under arrest by two Farmington police officers, Richard Caton and Nolan Wilcox. Officer Caton had given defendant Miranda warnings in his hospital room on the day before, and at that time defendant had chosen to exercise his Miranda right to remain silent until he had gotten a lawyer. The officers did not repeat the Miranda warnings at the time of defendant's arrest. Both officers, however, were aware of defendant's choice to remain silent and did not talk with him as they started to drive from the hospital to the Farmington police station. A short time into the drive, however, defendant initiated a conversation about the nature of construction work taking place on the road on which they were traveling. Defendant then asked how the family was taking it, apparently referring to the decedent's family. Officer Caton replied that he did not know, but that he had heard that there were eight children. Defendant then became disturbed and made several inculpatory statements about the accident that were used against him at trial. The officers did not question defendant about the accident at any time. Defendant contends that those statements should have been suppressed on the ground that they were obtained in violation of his fifth and sixth amendment rights, which he had chosen to exercise when Officer Caton had given him the Miranda warnings in the hospital on the day before his arrest. The only issue on appeal is whether defendant was interrogated by the officers in violation of his right under Miranda to remain silent until he had consulted with an attorney. In Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980), the Supreme Court concluded that the Miranda safeguards come into play whenever a person in custody is subjected to either express questioning or its functional equivalent. Id. at 300-01, 100 S.Ct. at 1689. The functional equivalent of interrogation refers to any words or actions on the part of the police (other than those normally attendant to arrest and custody) that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect. Id. at 301, 100 S.Ct. at 1689. The Court emphasized that since the police cannot be held accountable for the unforeseeable results of their words or actions, the definition of interrogation must be limited to words or actions by the police that they  should have known were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. Id. at 301-02, 100 S.Ct. at 1689-90 (emphasis in original). See also State v. Friel, 508 A.2d 123, 127 (Me.1986). Turning to the present case, the officers engaged in no express questioning whatever of defendant. The only issue is whether there existed the functional equivalent of interrogation. The suppression justice found as a fact that defendant's statements were not made as a result of words or actions that the officers should have known were reasonably likely to elicit such an incriminating response. He found that it was defendant who initiated the conversation, that there was no functional equivalent of interrogation under Innis, and that his statements were voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt. Those findings are fully justified on the evidence of record. Under the teachings of Innis, the Superior Court committed no error in admitting evidence of the statements defendant made on the way to the police station. The entry is: Judgment of conviction affirmed. All concurring.