Opinion ID: 779188
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether Lam's statements were voluntary.

Text: 33 We will first address whether Lam's responses to the undercover officers should have been suppressed because they were involuntary. As we noted at the outset, these responses include Lam's taped statement and the telephone call from her workplace to alleged co-conspirator Xie that same evening, which call was presumably made by Lam and resulted in Xie learning Lee's beeper number. 34 The Due Process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment bar the use of incriminating statements that are involuntary. 5 See generally LaFave et al. 2 Criminal Procedure § 6.2(b), p. 444 (2d ed. West 1999). The voluntariness standard is intended to ensure the reliability of incriminating statements and to deter improper police conduct, id. at pp. 444-45. The ultimate issue of voluntariness is a legal question requiring an independent federal determination, Miller v. Fenton, 474 U.S. 104, 110, 106 S.Ct. 445, 88 L.Ed.2d 405 (1985). Thus, under the AEDPA habeas standard, we are required to determine whether the state court's legal determination of voluntariness was contrary to or an unreasonable application of Supreme Court precedent. 35 The Supreme Court has made clear that a statement is involuntary when the suspect's will was overborne in such a way as to render his confession the product of coercion. Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 288, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991). In determining whether a statement is voluntary, Supreme Court precedent requires consideration of the totality of all the surrounding circumstances — both the characteristics of the accused and the details of the interrogation. Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428, 434, 120 S.Ct. 2326, 147 L.Ed.2d 405 (2000) (quoting Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 226, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973)). These surrounding circumstances include not only the crucial element of police coercion, Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 167, 107 S.Ct. 515, 93 L.Ed.2d 473 (1986), but may also include the length of the interrogation, its location, its continuity, the defendant's maturity, education, physical condition, and mental health. Withrow v. Williams, 507 U.S. 680, 693, 113 S.Ct. 1745, 123 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993) (some internal citations omitted). 36 The state appellate court relied on the totality of circumstances test when it examined whether Lam's will was overborne. Thus, its ruling was not contrary to Supreme Court precedent establishing the proper test for voluntariness. We do hold, however, that the state court was objectively unreasonable, under Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991), in concluding that Lam's statements were voluntary under the totality of circumstances surrounding the credible threats of violence by the undercover officers. 37 Fulminante required the Supreme Court to decide whether a government informant's credible threat of exposure to physical violence supported a conclusion, under the totality of circumstances, that the suspect's subsequent responses were coerced. Fulminante, 499 U.S. at 287-88, 111 S.Ct. 1246. 6 The suspect in Fulminante was approached by a government informant while he was serving a prison sentence. The informant made an indirect threat of violence by saying that he would not protect Fulminante from other prisoners unless he confessed to his involvement in a crime different from the one resulting in his prison sentence. Id. at 288, 111 S.Ct. 1246. The record contained evidence that Fulminante's personal characteristics were insufficient to render him impervious to that threat, 7 although he had stipulated that he never indicate[d] that he was in fear of other inmates nor did he ever seek Mr. Sarivola's `protection'. Id. at 304, 111 S.Ct. 1246. Despite that stipulation, the Supreme Court held that Fulminante's confession was involuntary based on the government's indirect threat and evidence that Fulminante was susceptible to the government's threat. 38 The circumstances confronting Fulminante pale in comparison to those confronting Lam. Undercover officers threatened Lam with gang violence unless she paid a $15,000 balance due on a murder-for-hire contract. 8 Thus, their threat to Lam was more direct than the threat leading to an involuntary confession in Fulminante. Nor does the record support the conclusion that Lam was impervious to the government's overreaching. Unlike Fulminante, Lam never stipulated to her lack of expressed fear. Rather, she gave undisputed testimony that she was scared that the undercover officers would physically harm her and that she believed that they were members of the Fuk Ching gang. Lam also testified that Fuk Ching had a reputation for kidnapping, extortion, and burglary. 39 In addition, the record contains no evidence that Lam's personal characteristics would render her impervious to such a direct threat of physical violence. She is, however, a middle-aged woman who left China to go to Hong Kong for eight years; she then came to this country in 1988. She grew up in China — a culture very different from the one in which she now found herself. After Lam left China, she raised three children without much support from her husband who had remarried Xu. She had no prior criminal record. At the meeting with Lee and Yeun, she believed that she was being threatened by a violent gang imported from the alien culture of China. We have no idea whether she understood that she could ask the American police to protect her from that gang. Indeed, Agent Troutmann testified at trial that Fuk Ching victims usually won't tell the FBI anything. 40 While these characteristics of Lam are not of the same type as the personal vulnerabilities the Fulminante case presents, we find this distinction unimportant in light of the fact that Lam presented uncontradicted testimony that she was actually afraid of the agents' threats of violence. Thus, the totality of circumstances presents a situation far more coercive to Lam than the one found unconstitutional in Fulminante. Lam's fear of the threats undermines the reliability of the incriminating responses she made. 41 The state courts failed to consider Fulminante in their analysis. The state trial court made no express findings of fact and concluded, with little explanation, that Lam's will was not overborne under the circumstances. The Pennsylvania Superior Court's discussion was brief and conclusory. We quote it in full: 42 Appellant's third issue concerns her own recorded conversation with Agent Lee which she contends should have been suppressed as having been obtained involuntarily in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Appellant alleges that her statement was made under duress and coercion because the agents posed as members of a violent Asian gang. Appellant also seeks to suppress, based upon the fruit of the poisoned tree doctrine, evidence of the resulting phone calls to her co-defendants which emanated from her business, 9 the call from Xie to Agent Lee's beeper the next day, and any further contacts between Xie and the agents. 43 In reviewing a ruling of a suppression court, we must ascertain whether the record supports the court's factual findings. Commonwealth v. Hughes, 536 Pa. 355, 639 A.2d 763, 769 (1994). In doing so, we may only consider the evidence of the Commonwealth and so much of the evidence for the defense as remains uncontradicted. Id. If the record supports the court's findings, we may only reverse if the court drew an erroneous legal conclusion from the facts. Id. 44 In order for a defendant's statements to be admissible, they must be freely and voluntarily given and must not be extracted by any sort of threats or violence. Commonwealth v. Nester, 443 Pa.Super. 156, 661 A.2d 3, 5 (1995), allocatur granted 543 Pa. 726, 673 A.2d 333 (1996) [reversed 551 Pa. 157, 709 A.2d 879 (1998) on grounds that the Superior Court had not acknowledged the totality of the circumstances]. The defendant's will must not have been overborne nor her capacity for self-determination critically impaired. Commonwealth v. Clark, 516 Pa. 599, 533 A.2d 1376, 1379 (1987) (citing Commonwealth v. Smith, 470 Pa. 220, 368 A.2d 272 (1977)). 45 The suppression court held that Appellant's statements were made voluntarily. We agree. Although the Fuk Ching was known for violence, the agents' statements that they would not be as polite next time, and that if she did not pay we will hold up together and die together, were insufficient to overcome Appellant's will and self-determination. Appellant never wavered from her repeated contention that she did not know what the agents were referring to, nor did appellant contact the police after the agents left. 46 (citations to Pennsylvania cases restated per Local Appellate Rule 28.3). 47 Thus, we see that the Superior Court did not consider Lam's admitted fear when it concluded that Lam spoke voluntarily. Instead, the Superior Court concluded that it could disregard the government's threat based on the facts that Lam never wavered from her repeated contention that she did not know what the agents were referring to, nor did [she] contact the police after the agents left. As explained below, however, these factors cannot reasonably be considered determinative of a free will in light of the threats and of Lam's fear. 48 As an initial matter, we are troubled by the state court's reliance on Lam's assertions that she did not know what the agents were referring to. A refusal to acknowledge the facts that the threat is intended to verify is not an indication that the person being threatened is not intimidated. In Brown v. Mississippi, 297 U.S. 278, 281, 56 S.Ct. 461, 80 L.Ed. 682 (1936), for example, Brown still protested his innocence after being hung twice, and still declined to confess when he was whipped immediately thereafter. Brown's protestation of innocence hardly shows that his eventual confession (given after another round of whipping the very next day) was voluntary. Similarly, Lam's professed ignorance of the reason for the undercover agents' visit does not establish that Lam spoke freely to the undercover officers. 49 Furthermore, the fact that Lam failed to call the police after the undercover officers left cannot reasonably support a finding of voluntariness. The failure to call the police does nothing to mitigate the officers' threats and Lam's testimony that she was afraid while she was being questioned by them. Her failure to take a particular action after they left cannot reasonably support a conclusion that Lam remained unaffected by the prospect of the physical violence with which they had threatened her. Indeed, Fuk Ching victims apparently do not seek aid from American law enforcement authorities. As Agent Troutmann testified, Fuk Ching victims don't talk to the FBI. 50 Under the totality of facts assumed by the state court, the only reasonable conclusion is that Lam's will was overborne by the officers' threats of violence. Because, therefore, her responses were made under duress, they cannot be used by the Commonwealth as evidence against her. The incriminating responses include Lam's reply when the undercover officers asked her why everyone else thought she had murdered Xu. Lam responded: 51 I don't know. Maybe I have hatred with her very deep, deepest hatred with her is me ... Everybody is looking at us. See what is happening. The FBI will come here every one month or two months. Many people said that I did this right now. 52 This response was the only evidence of motive on Lam's part. As a result it must be considered incriminating. See, e.g., Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 477, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) ([i]f a statement made were in fact truly exculpatory it would, of course, never be used by the prosecution). 53 The April 7 telephone call from the restaurant to Xie after the undercover officers had left, was also incriminating. This call was presumably made by Lam. When Xie called Lee the next day, he used Lee's beeper number which Lee had given to Lam the night before. Thus, the April 7 call was the means to link Lam to Xie's statement that Lam had agreed to pay the money. The Commonwealth acknowledges in its opening brief that it was very important to its case to establish that Lam had passed on the beeper number to Xie. Given that the April 7 call was made that same evening after Lam was threatened by the officers, the call must be considered to have been made in reaction to those threats. Evidence of the call, either directly or by reference as the source of Xie's knowledge of Lee's beeper number, should have been suppressed. 54 In sum, in light of the threats and of the fear they caused, Lam's statements during the interview and the fact that someone (presumably Lam) telephoned Xie immediately afterwards must have been induced by these threats and, therefore, must have been involuntary. The state court's contrary determination was objectively unreasonable in light of the Supreme Court's holding in Fulminante. 55