Opinion ID: 2623122
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Isolated in police custody

Text: Holmes was isolated in police custody for 1 hour and 9 minutes before the detectives entered the interview room at 7:15 a.m. Miranda rights were given approximately 15 minutes afterwards. The interrogation lasted until 10 a.m., and Holmes was secured to the table and floor in isolation until 11:45 a.m. Between 11:45 a.m. and 12:50 p.m., Holmes signed the consent to search his person and was processed for those items. The second interview, which began at 1 p.m. and ended 15 minutes later, involved questions regarding how to contact Smith's daughter. At 1:22 p.m., Holmes was taken to a jail cell. Holmes argues that the fact he was isolated in police custody when he was asked to confess was inherently coercive, even though he admits there was no evidence of overt coercion on the detectives' part. The State responds that since the interrogation was not conducted in an overbearing, coercive manner and was not overly lengthy, Holmes' confession was knowingly and voluntarily made. Holmes asserts that courts have recognized that there is an inherently compulsive or coercive nature to postarrest confessions involving isolation in custodial surroundings, citing Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 458, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 86 S. Ct. 1602 (1966). Kansas courts have recognized that the procedural safeguards of Miranda are to be timely applied when the police fail to warn a person in custody of his or her Miranda rights and use deliberately coercive or improper tactics to obtain an incriminating statement. See State v. Lewis, 258 Kan. 24, 35-37, 899 P.2d 1027 (1995) (suspect was arrested, held for 10 hours, and only warned of Miranda rights upon making an incriminating statement). Holmes admits there was no evidence of overt coercion and that the detectives read him his Miranda rights prior to any questioning regarding the shooting. In addition, Holmes was isolated for only approximately an hour before the first interrogation. Thus, the evidence is insufficient to establish that the mere fact of being isolated in police custody was inherently coercive. Holmes' isolation in police custody did not render his statements involuntary.