Opinion ID: 441742
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: admissibility of redacted statement

Text: 72 Appellants challenge the admission of testimony by FBI Agent Land relating a statement made by Allison to Land while en route to the police station. Allison contends that the statement was taken in violation of his Miranda rights; Satterfield and Welden maintain that Allison's statement inculpated them and denied them their right of confrontation, in violation of Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968). Neither claim has merit. 73 During a mid-trial hearing on the admissibility of the statement, Land stated that he advised Allison of his Miranda rights immediately after his arrest. At the same time, he gave Allison an Advice of Rights form, which Allison read. The form repeated the Miranda warnings and also included a waiver of rights provision, which Allison did not sign. According to Land, during the ride to the county police station, Land and Allison engaged in small talk or casual conversation about topics such as sports, a summer concert and DeKalb County. In the course of the conversation, Allison told Land that he wanted to make it clear that he was really not a mean person, but that he simply had too many friends that got him into trouble and some of them were not good friends. He also said that Pig Satterfield and Carlton Welden were mean when they got high. After Allison made this statement, Land immediately readvised him of his Miranda rights. Land told the court at the hearing that neither he nor another FBI agent who was also in the car discussed the case or questioned Allison about the events that led to his arrest. 74 At the end of the hearing, the court found that Allison had initiated the conversation and had volunteered the statement. To avoid any Bruton problems, however, the court redacted the statement so that at trial Land testified only that Mr. Allison advised me that he wanted to make it clear that he was not really a mean man, but that he simply had too many people that got him into trouble. At the conclusion of Land's trial testimony, the court instructed the jury that any statements allegedly made by Allison were not to be considered in the Government's case against the other two defendants. 75 From a review of the evidence presented to the trial court at the hearing, we conclude that the court did not err in admitting the statement against Allison. Volunteered statements are not barred by the fifth amendment. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 478, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1629, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966); United States v. Castro, 723 F.2d 1527, 1530 (11th Cir.1984). FBI Agent Land's testimony indicates that Allison's statement was volunteered. Incriminating statements made in the course of casual conversation are not products of a custodial interrogation. See United States v. Menichino, 497 F.2d 935 (5th Cir.1974). 76 As to appellants Satterfield and Welden, a defendant's right to confront his accuser is infringed by the admissibility of a statement against his codefendant only if the out-of-court statement directly implicates him. United States v. Stewart, 579 F.2d 356, 359 (5th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 936, 99 S.Ct. 332, 58 L.Ed.2d 332 (1979). For Bruton to apply, a codefendant's statement must be clearly inculpatory standing alone. United States v. Slocum, 695 F.2d 650, 655 (2d Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1015, 103 S.Ct. 1260, 75 L.Ed.2d 487 (1983). Allison's statement that he had too many people that got him into trouble did not specifically name Satterfield or Welden, or describe them in such a way that a jury would identify them as among the people Allison was referring to. The out-of-court statement falls far short of directly implicating either Satterfield or Welden in the crime. The trial court redacted any references that might have implicated the other defendants, going so far as changing the word friends to the more general people. As an added precaution, the court's cautionary instruction made clear that the statement was admissible only against defendant Allison. Under these circumstances, the Bruton claims of Satterfield and Welden must fail.