Opinion ID: 501762
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did Admission of Deering's Refusal Violate the Fifth Amendment?

Text: 9
10 As we mentioned above, in order to merit the protections of the fifth amendment privilege against self incrimination, a defendant's evidence must be both compelled by the state and of a testimonial or communicative nature. See Schmerber, 384 U.S. at 764, 86 S.Ct. at 1832. We turn first to the question whether Deering's refusal constituted testimonial evidence within the context of the crimes charged. 11 First, this circuit has clearly held that the refusal to take a blood-alcohol test, in the context of a charge of driving while intoxicated, is nontestimonial conduct indicating a consciousness of guilt, Newhouse v. Misterly, 415 F.2d 514, 518 (9th Cir.1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 966, 90 S.Ct. 1001, 25 L.Ed.2d 258 (1970). Thus it is clear that the state's use of Deering's refusal in proving the DWI charge was nontestimonial and does not implicate the fifth amendment. 12 Deering argues, however, that in the context of the separate criminal charge of breathalyzer refusal, his refusal to take the test was somehow transformed into a testimonial statement. He argues that, because the breathalyzer test is the subject of a distinct criminal charge in Alaska, the effects of refusal in these circumstances are qualitatively different from those in cases where the charge is DWI, in which an arrestee's answer to police questions could at most provide inferrential evidence as to the related charge. Because refusal is criminalized, Deering suggests, the police were demanding either a promise to take the test or, in his failure to perform, an outright confession of guilt. 13 We find this contention, although appealing at first blush, ultimately unpersuasive. That the refusal is itself an element of this crime, rather than merely evidence of an element of the crime (as it is in the case of the DWI charge), does not transform the nature of the refusal itself. Alaska's refusal statute is closely analogous to a criminal contempt penalty for violating a court order to produce nontestimonial evidence. Just as a defendant facing a court order to produce nontestimonial evidence has no constitutional right to refuse the order, In re Braughton, 520 F.2d 765, 767 (9th Cir.1975) (request for handwriting exemplar), so Deering had no right to refuse the police request for a breathalyzer test. Burnett v. Municipality of Anchorage, 806 F.2d 1447, 1450 (9th Cir.1986). And just as the imposition of criminal contempt penalties does not transform the refusal to obey a court order regarding nontestimonial evidence into a testimonial communication with respect to the contempt charge, cf. United States v. Hammond, 419 F.2d 166, 168 (4th Cir.1969) (court order to appear in lineup wearing goatee, backed by criminal contempt charge, does not violate fifth amendment), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1068, 90 S.Ct. 1508, 25 L.Ed.2d 690 (1970), neither does the imposition by the State of Alaska of a criminal penalty for refusal to provide the state with the physical evidence of a breathalyzer test--beyond the civil penalty of license revocation clearly condoned in Neville --qualitatively transform the refusal into testimony. 14 We acknowledge that some refusals are by nature more testimonial than others. Cf. Neville, 459 U.S. at 562, 103 S.Ct. at 921-22 (implying that a nonverbal refusal can be considered less testimonial than a verbal refusal combined with a statement of the reason for the refusal). As in the case of a failure to obey a court order in order to prove a criminal contempt charge, evidence of Deering's refusal was not used for the testimonial or communicative content conveyed by his act of refusal (e.g., I'm refusing because I'm too drunk to pass). Rather, it was used to show that he had not performed the physical act of actually taking the test when requested. Because the act of refusal was not used for testimonial purposes at trial but rather simply to convey that, indeed, Deering had not taken the test when requested, there was no fifth amendment violation. See Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454, 463, 101 S.Ct. 1866, 1873, 68 L.Ed.2d 359 (1981); United States v. Dionisio, 410 U.S. 1, 7, 93 S.Ct. 764, 768, 35 L.Ed.2d 67 (1973). 15
16 Even were we to find Deering's refusal to be in some respects testimonial with respect to the charge of refusal, we nonetheless conclude that it was not compelled for purposes of fifth amendment analysis. In Neville the Court relied on two related factors in finding that the state did not compel the defendant to incriminate himself when it gave him a choice between submitting to a blood-alcohol test or having the refusal used against him in court. 5 First, the Court noted that the state could legitimately compel a suspect to take a blood-alcohol test against the suspect's will. Neville, 459 U.S. at 563, 103 S.Ct. at 922; See also Schmerber 384 U.S. 757, at 760-65, 86 S.Ct. at 1830-33. The Court then concluded that the offer of taking a blood-alcohol test becomes no less legitimate when the State offers a second option of refusing the test, with the attendant penalties for making that choice. Neville, 459 U.S. at 563, 103 S.Ct. at 922 (emphasis in original). 17 The choice faced by Deering was identical to the choice treated in Neville, with the notable exception that Deering faced criminal charges for his refusal. Deering suggests that, where refusal is criminalized, the choice offered by the state is illusory, because he faced either submitting to the breathalyzer test, thereby incriminating himself under Alaska's DWI statute, or of refusing to take the test, and incriminating himself under Alaska's criminal refusal statute. 18 It is true that, as the Court stated in Neville, the mere presence of choice does not always settle the compulsion issue. Id. at 562-63, 103 S.Ct. at 922. The legitimacy of a choice largely depends on the coerciveness of the proffered alternatives; certain cruel choices, and choices made in highly coercive circumstances, are proscribed by the fifth amendment even though the state, strictly speaking, does not compel an incriminating statement. See New Jersey v. Portash, 440 U.S. 450, 459, 99 S.Ct. 1292, 1297, 59 L.Ed.2d 501 (1979) (proscribing choice between testifying or facing contempt charges); Schmerber, 384 U.S. at 765 n. 9, 86 S.Ct. at 1833 n. 9 (fifth amendment may bar use of testimony obtained when the proffered alternative was to submit to a test so painful that a person almost inevitably would prefer confession); Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 458, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1619, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) (unless coercion inherent in custodial surroundings is dispelled, no statement is truly a product of free choice); Murphy v. Waterfront Commission, 378 U.S. 52, 55, 84 S.Ct. 1594, 1596-97, 12 L.Ed.2d 678 (1964) (proscribing choice between self-accusation, perjury for false testimony, and contempt for declining to testify). 19 Although we acknowledge that the choice in this case appears more coercive than that in Neville, we nonetheless conclude that the Supreme Court's analysis in that case is controlling, and applies equally to Deering's choice despite the criminal penalties attendant upon it. Where, as here, the state could have taken Deerings' blood by force, 6 it does not compel a defendant to testify against himself when it allows him the choice of either producing the evidence or facing criminal charges--and even a mandatory prison sentence of three days--for withholding it. Such a choice is no more impermissibly coercive than any order to produce physical evidence which is backed with the sanction of criminal contempt. As the Court noted in Neville, the choice to submit or refuse to take a blood-alcohol test will not be an easy or pleasant one for a suspect to make. But the criminal process often requires suspects and defendants to make difficult choices. 459 U.S. at 564, 103 S.Ct. at 922-23. 20 Equally important, we note that the Court's analysis in Neville placed great weight on the fact that the state did not directly compel a refusal. Rather, the Court noted, the state wants suspects to take the blood-alcohol test. Id. at 563-64, 103 S.Ct. at 922-23. See also People v. Ellis, 65 Cal.2d 529, 537, 55 Cal.Rptr. 385, 389, 421 P.2d 393, 397 (Cal.1966) (Traynor, C.J.) (refusal to take voice identification test in rape case: [a] guilty party may prefer not to find himself in a situation where consciousness of guilt may be inferred from his conduct, but it can scarcely be contended that the police, who seek evidence from the test itself, will tend to coerce parties into refusing to take tests in order to produce this evidence) (footnote omitted). 21 We find this observation equally persuasive here. In fact, a criminal penalty for refusal arguably compels a refusal less than the civil penalty present in Neville did. Although the imposition of a criminal penalty for refusal may create an inherently more coercive situation than imposition of a civil penalty for the same behavior, the compulsion it increases is the compulsion to submit to the breathalyzer test, not the compulsion to refuse, and refusal is the conduct made criminal in the statute. Because increasing the penalty attendant upon refusal only reduces the likelihood of refusal, cf. Neville, 459 U.S. at 560, 103 S.Ct. at 920-21 (allowing use of refusal at trial discourages choice of refusal), Deering's refusal was even less compelled than the refusal in Neville. 22 In short, Deering's refusal in this case was neither testimonial nor compelled. The Court held in Neville that a refusal to take a blood-alcohol test, after a police officer has lawfully requested it, is not an act coerced by the officer, and thus is not protected by the privilege against self-incrimination. As our discussion shows, that conclusion is not altered by the imposition of criminal penalties upon the choice of refusal. The analysis proferred in Neville is controlling here, and Deering's fifth amendment challenge must therefore fail. 23