Opinion ID: 733387
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Delay in Bringing Glover Before a Magistrate

Text: 50 Glover contends that the district court should have suppressed his written confession because it was obtained in violation of the rule set out in McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 63 S.Ct. 608, 87 L.Ed. 819 (1943), and Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449, 77 S.Ct. 1356, 1 L.Ed.2d 1479 (1957). More specifically, Glover asserts that his written confession is invalid because it was obtained more than six hours after his arrest but before he was brought in front of a magistrate. 51 The McNabb-Mallory rule has been codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3501(c), which provides: 52 In any criminal prosecution by the United States ..., a confession made or given by a person who is a defendant therein, while such person was under arrest or other detention in the custody of any law-enforcement officer or law-enforcement agency, shall not be inadmissible solely because of delay in bringing such person before a magistrate or other officer empowered to commit persons charged with offenses against the laws of the United States ... if such confession is found by the trial judge to have been made voluntarily and if the weight to be given the confession is left to the jury and if such confession was made or given by such person within six hours immediately following his arrest or other detention.... 53 In interpreting section 3501(c), this court has stated that non-compliance with the six hour rule does not ipso facto render a confession inadmissible. United States v. Shoemaker, 542 F.2d 561, 563 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1004, 97 S.Ct. 537, 50 L.Ed.2d 616 (1976). Instead, [v]oluntariness is the sole test for admissibility of a confession. Shoemaker, 542 F.2d at 563. Although a judge must consider the amount of time that elapsed between arrest and arraignment in determining whether a confession made during that period is voluntary, [s]uch a consideration is only a factor, and need not be conclusive. Id. 54 With these considerations in mind, it is relatively easy to resolve Glover's claim. As noted by the magistrate, Glover has not produced any evidence that the delay in bringing him before a magistrate overbore his ability to exercise his own freewill. In fact, based on the testimony at the suppression hearing, the district court found, as a matter of fact, that Glover's choice to write the statement was voluntary and was not a product of the delay. Furthermore, the record clearly demonstrates, and the district court found as a matter of fact, that the delay in bringing Glover before a magistrate was not part of a plot or ploy to obtain a confession. Instead, the delay occurred because the cooperating officers had not yet decided which agency would prosecute the drug offenses. Because the benchmark of admissibility of a confession is voluntariness and because there is no question that Glover made the written statement voluntarily, the short delay in bringing Glover before a magistrate does not render that statement inadmissible. Shoemaker, 542 F.2d at 563. 55