Opinion ID: 502739
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prearrest, Pre-Miranda Silence

Text: 24 Both the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the district court held that references to Mr. Fencl's silence before he had been given Miranda warnings violated his fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself. These references involved Mr. Fencl's two encounters with Detective Geigel on Sunday, October 2. The respondent, relying on United States v. Harrold, 796 F.2d 1275 (10th Cir.1986), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 892, 93 L.Ed.2d 844 (1987), argues that there is no independent fifth amendment protection for silence in a prearrest, pre-Miranda situation if there was no governmental action which induced the silence. Respondent's Br. at 14. Further, the respondent contends that the petitioner may have waived any fifth amendment right by offering exculpatory stories to the police prior to and after he stated his desire to consult an attorney. At 4:00 p.m. on October 2, the petitioner did not respond to Detective Geigel's questions about the victim's belongings found in his car. However, at 4:30 p.m., Mr. Fencl stated to Detective Geigel that he had found the victim's belongings in his car and had thrown them in a trash bag into the river. Mr. Fencl further offered an explanation for their appearance in his car--he suggested that he had experienced problems with people opening the vent window of his car and breaking into it. The respondent maintains that the petitioner waived at 4:30 whatever fifth amendment right to silence he may have invoked at 4:00 p.m. that same day. The state submits that it was the 4:30 statement, and not the 'silence' one-half hour earlier, that prejudiced the defense at trial. Respondent's Br. at 19. 25 It is firmly established that neither the fifth amendment nor the fourteenth amendment is violated by the government's use of prearrest silence to impeach a defendant's credibility when he testifies at trial. Jenkins v. Anderson, 447 U.S. 231, 100 S.Ct. 2124, 65 L.Ed.2d 86 (1980). When a defendant testifies at trial, the fifth amendment is not violated because impeachment follows the defendant's own decision to cast aside his cloak of silence and advances the truth-finding function of the criminal trial. Id. at 238, 100 S.Ct. at 2129. The right to fundamental fairness guaranteed by the due process clause is not violated in this situation, because unlike the Doyle situation where Miranda warnings have been given, in this situation, no governmental action induced petitioner to remain silent before arrest. Id. at 240, 100 S.Ct. at 2130; see also 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 for a State to permit cross-examination as to postarrest silence when a defendant chooses to take the stand.). 26 As noted by the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the district court, this case presents a different question than either Jenkins or Fletcher because the petitioner chose not to testify at trial. The Supreme Court has yet to address the precise question of whether the prosecution's reference to pre-Miranda silence in its case-in-chief violates the fifth amendment. The Tenth Circuit, in United States v. Harrold, 796 F.2d 1275 (10th Cir.1986), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 892, 93 L.Ed.2d 844 (1987), has held that comment on a defendant's silence is error only when the defendant remained silent in reliance on government action, i.e., a Miranda warning. Id. at 1279. The court then held that testimony elicited by the government about the defendant's pre-Miranda reliance on the fifth amendment was proper. Id. Other courts have declined to decide the question because in those cases, the references to the defendant's silence were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See United States v. Blanton, 730 F.2d 1425, 1433-34 (11th Cir.1984); United States v. Caro, 637 F.2d 869, 876 (2d Cir.1981). In Caro, however, the Second Circuit suggested that references to the defendant's silence during the government's direct case are improper. [W]e are not confident that Jenkins permits even evidence that a suspect remained silent before he was arrested or taken into custody to be used in the Government's case in chief.... [A]ll of the cases permitting proof of silence, including Jenkins, have involved impeachment or rebuttal of the defendant's testimony. Id. at 876. We need not decide this question today, however, because our determination rests on the harmless error doctrine.