Opinion ID: 740029
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Trial References to Ross's Silence

Text: 41 At trial, the prosecution asked Ross several questions regarding why he did not go to the authorities with his suspicions that either Peter or Arthur Ross were involved in the bombing. The questions were meant to impeach Ross's story, told for the first time at Ross's third trial, that his relatives must have made the calls to Manning, and therefore that the wrong Ross was on trial. 42 The prosecutor's questions referred only to the years between the first and second trials. The government argues that Ross was not protected by Miranda warnings between the two trials, and that the references to his silence during that time period were therefore permissible impeachment. In general, the prosecution is free to impeach a defendant based on his silence when that silence does not follow Miranda warnings. See Fletcher v. Weir, 455 U.S. 603, 607, 102 S.Ct. 1309, 1312, 71 L.Ed.2d 490 (1982) (per curiam) (In the absence of the sort of affirmative assurances embodied in the Miranda warnings, we do not believe that it violates due process of law ... to permit cross-examination as to postarrest silence when a defendant chooses to take the stand.); United States v. Harris, 726 F.2d 558, 559 (9th Cir.1984) (prosecutors may argue inferences from silence in order to impeach testimony when the silence was not the result of Miranda warnings). 43 Ross first received his Miranda warnings during his 1988 arrest. In 1989, the government dismissed the indictment against him. The caselaw does not delineate how long Miranda warnings protect a defendant or at what point that protection evaporates. See, e.g., United States v. Balter, 91 F.3d 427, 439 (3rd Cir.) (as amended) (It may be that a defendant's silence immediately after receiving Miranda warnings is more likely to represent the exercise of Miranda rights than is a defendant's silence for an extended period of time after the receipt of warnings ....), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 517, 136 L.Ed.2d 406 (1996). Whether Ross was still operating under assurances of his right to remain silent years after officials had instructed him on that right is uncertain. We need not decide, however, whether the prosecution's questions improperly referred to a time when Ross's silence was protected by Miranda, because any error in this case was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See United States v. Burrows, 36 F.3d 875, 880 (9th Cir.1994) (erroneous jury instruction that undermined defendant's credibility harmless beyond a reasonable doubt where defendant's credibility already very seriously damaged). The questions were meant to impeach Ross by implying that he lied on the stand about his brother and his son. Ross's credibility, though, had already been repeatedly impeached. The prosecution presented the jury with evidence of more than twenty lies allegedly told by Ross, many in his effort to flee the United States. We cannot see how the mention of another lie could have changed the jury's opinion regarding Ross's trustworthiness in the face of a false passport, a false birth certificate, and reams of evidence of fabrications and inconsistencies.