Opinion ID: 3064455
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: DeWeaver’s confession

Text: DeWeaver argues that the state appellate court decided contrary to federal law when it concluded that he had not invoked his right to remain silent. He contends that by asking to go back to his jail cell, he invoked his privilege against self incrimination. At that point, DeWeaver argues, under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), police were required to cease the interrogation and return him to the jail. He then argues that even if there was no violation of Miranda, his confession was involuntary because of the coercive techniques used by the police interrogators. We first address DeWeaver’s argument that the police officers violated the rule in Miranda, and then his argument regarding the voluntariness of his statement.
DeWeaver and another man were charged with first-degree murder, and DeWeaver was charged with attempted firstdegree murder for two shootings in Oakland, California. Two days after the shootings, police encountered DeWeaver smoking marijuana in a parked car. In the car, officers discovered narcotics and two loaded handguns; they arrested DeWeaver for possession of the drugs and firearms and informed him of his rights under Miranda. DeWeaver told the officers that he did not wish to give a statement and he was not questioned at that time. Over the course of two or three days, testing revealed that the bullets recovered from the shootings in Oakland had been DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS 2203 fired by the guns found with DeWeaver in the car, and witnesses to the shootings identified DeWeaver as a shooter in photographic line-ups. Homicide Sergeant Ersie Joyner transported DeWeaver from the jail to the police department to question him about the shootings. Sergeant Joyner and DeWeaver both testified that on the morning of the interrogation, DeWeaver was picked up by a police officer at North County jail and driven to the police station where he was placed in an interrogation room. Police officers asked DeWeaver if he would like something to eat, brought him some food, and left him alone in the interrogation room for an hour before beginning the interview. At this point, the two accounts diverge. DeWeaver testified that as soon as the officers entered the interrogation room, he asked them if they were Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents. When they said no, they were homicide detectives, DeWeaver remembered immediately replying, “I don’t want to talk to you.” When the detectives asked him why, DeWeaver testified that he told them: “I don’t want to talk to you, you’re homicide detectives, you investigate homicides.” He could not remember what Joyner said in response, but testified that he then asked them to “take [him] back to North County.” According to DeWeaver, Joyner “asked me to hear him out, and after I finish hearing him out, if I still want to go back to North County he’d take me.” DeWeaver’s account continued with Joyner telling him that the guns with which he had been arrested were linked to the shootings, numerous witnesses had identified him as the shooter, and the person who drove him to the scene of the shooting had confessed. At that point, DeWeaver said he felt confused and scared; he did not know what to do or what to think. But he asked to see the photographic line-ups from which the witnesses had identified him. He testified that he looked at them and then said, “Okay, I heard you out and I want to go back to North County now.” 2204 DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS Although he was unclear of the timing, he testified that he repeatedly asked to make a phone call, to go back to jail, and told the interrogators that he did not want to talk to them. Overall, DeWeaver attempted to paint a picture of a coercive interrogation, even going so far as to testify, “by the time I made that statement, I no longer had the decision making skills to refuse to do it because it was like, I guess I feel like my will was overborne.” He said that he was overwhelmed with fear for his girlfriend, their unborn child, his father, and his brother because one of the victim’s family members might retaliate. DeWeaver alleged that Joyner told him if he made a statement the police could protect his family. DeWeaver also claimed that Joyner told him that if he did not make a statement he would look like a cold-blooded killer, but that if he did the judge might be lenient. In contrast, Joyner described a non-remarkable police interrogation. Joyner testified that he and his partner came into the interview room, talked to DeWeaver about his name, birth date, and living arrangements. Joyner then admonished DeWeaver of his Miranda rights by reading to him from the standardized form prepared by the Oakland Police Department. DeWeaver waived his rights by initialing the form next to the waiver statements and wrote the time of the waiver next to his initials. According to Joyner, DeWeaver never said that he did not want to talk to the officers, but he did ask to go back to jail. At the preliminary hearing, Joyner testified that, when they started discussing the shootings in more detail, DeWeaver appeared upset that he would be spending his fifth birthday in a row in jail and asked to be returned to jail. At the Miranda hearing, Joyner was less clear about the timing of the request, but said that DeWeaver appeared reluctant to confront the evidence against him. In response, Joyner conveyed that returning to jail was not going to make the situation go away. He asked DeWeaver to hear him out and told him if he still wanted to return to jail, Joyner would take him. DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS 2205 Like DeWeaver, Joyner testified that he told DeWeaver that the guns with which he been arrested fired the bullets from the shootings, a witness had identified him as the shooter, and the person who had been driving DeWeaver the day of the shooting was at the station being questioned at the same time. But, according to Joyner, he never threatened DeWeaver or discussed possible sentences. He never promised DeWeaver leniency if he cooperated. He emphasized that he was seeking the truth and encouraged DeWeaver to tell his side of the story. In the beginning, Joyner described DeWeaver as appearing comfortable, but as the interrogation continued, and the officers began asking questions relevant to shootings, DeWeaver became slightly nervous. At times he was very quiet, other times he was very talkative. At some point during the interrogation, DeWeaver expressed regret that he might be going to jail and would not see his long-time girlfriend or their baby, with whom she was pregnant. He expressed concern about retaliation against his father and his brother, but Joyner denied offering to protect DeWeaver’s family if DeWeaver made a statement. Joyner’s notes reflected that he took one break during the interrogation, when DeWeaver asked for a moment by himself to think. Joyner and his partner left the room for about ten minutes and when they returned, DeWeaver asked to see the photographic lineup from which he had been identified. Within five minutes, DeWeaver began confessing his involvement in the shootings. After DeWeaver had discussed the shootings with Joyner, the officers tape-recorded DeWeaver’s statement. Joyner began the tape-recording by recounting the Miranda warnings he had given DeWeaver earlier and asking DeWeaver to acknowledge them. Joyner asked DeWeaver to describe the events of the shooting and DeWeaver did so. However, DeWeaver refused to name the person who drove him to the 2206 DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS shooting or the other shooter, referring to them as John 1 and John 2. Otherwise, throughout the taped statement, DeWeaver responded to all of the officers’ questions without hesitation. At the end of the tape, Joyner asked DeWeaver if any threats or promises had been made to him, and DeWeaver replied they had not. The state trial court found that when DeWeaver asked to be taken back to jail in the beginning of the interrogation, the request was not “indicative of a desire not talk.” As to voluntariness, the court found that there was no indication that police had attempted to browbeat DeWeaver or otherwise coerce him to make a statement. It determined that DeWeaver’s statements that he had been brainwashed, he lacked the necessary decision-making skills, and his will had been overborne were not reflective of what had actually happened. The court emphasized that, during the taped statement, he chose not to name the others involved, he corrected the interrogating officers, and he denied being threatened or promised anything. The trial court concluded that DeWeaver’s statement was voluntary. On direct appeal, DeWeaver challenged the trial-court decision, arguing, among other things, that his request to go back to jail was an invocation of the right to silence. The state appellate court concluded that asking to go back to jail was not an invocation; therefore, DeWeaver’s Miranda rights were not violated. It also determined that DeWeaver gave the statement voluntarily, noting that because the trial court reasonably credited Joyner’s testimony over DeWeaver’s, there was no evidence of coercion other than the fact that it was a custodial interrogation. Relying on Miranda, the court held that because DeWeaver was given Miranda warnings and signed the waiver, any coercive effect inherent in such interrogation was dispelled. People v. DeWeaver, No. A091078, 2001 WL 1515830, at -7 (Cal. Ct. App. Nov. 28, 2001). DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS 2207 DeWeaver again challenged these conclusions by filing a timely habeas corpus petition with the federal district court; he now appeals the district court’s denial of his petition.
[1] DeWeaver argues that under the Supreme Court’s opinion in Miranda, asking to go back to the jail was an invocation of his right to remain silent that the police failed to scrupulously honor. In Miranda, the Court created procedural safeguards to protect people against the coercive nature of custodial interrogations. 384 U.S. at 467. The Miranda Court required police to inform suspects of their right to remain silent, that any statement they make may be used against them, and of their right to the presence of retained or appointed counsel before custodial interrogation. Id. at 444. After detailing the requisite warnings and explaining their significance, the Miranda Court stated: “Once warnings have been given, the subsequent procedure is clear. If the individual indicates in any manner, at any time prior to or during questioning, that he wishes to remain silent, the interrogation must cease.” Id. at 473-74. [2] In essence, DeWeaver contends that this statement in Miranda requires interrogation to immediately cease upon any statement by a suspect that might be interpreted as an invocation of the right to remain silent, even if the statement is ambiguous. The Supreme Court has not yet directly addressed ambiguous statements in the context of the right to remain silent. In the context of another Miranda right, the right to the presence of an attorney during interrogation, however, the Court has held that after a valid Miranda waiver, an invocation of that right only halts interrogation when it is clear and unambiguous.1 Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. 452, 459-61 (1994). 1 An ambiguous, pre-waiver statement might require different analysis, see United States v. Rodriguez, 518 F.3d 1072, 1078-79 (9th Cir. 2008) 2208 DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS The Court recognized that a rule requiring an interrogation to cease based on an ambiguous invocation would become a “ ‘wholly irrational obstacle[ ] to legitimate police investigative activity’ ” because such an ambiguous statement would not reasonably inform the interrogating officers that the suspect wanted a lawyer present. Id. at 460 (quoting Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 102 (1975)). The Court applied an objective test, requiring a suspect to “articulate his desire to have counsel present sufficiently clearly that a reasonable police officer in the circumstances would understand the statement to be a request for an attorney.” Id. at 459. In focusing on the need for effective law enforcement, the Court noted that this bright line rule protected both the suspect’s interests and the valid investigatory tool of proper interrogation. Id. at 461. [3] Since the Court’s decision in Davis, many state and federal courts have extended its rule and required suspects to unambiguously invoke the right to remain silent before police must halt an interrogation. United States v. Banks, 78 F.3d 1190, 1197-98 (7th Cir. 1996), vacated, Mills v. United States, 519 U.S. 990 (1996), on remand, 122 F.3d 346, 35051 (7th Cir. 1997); Medina v. Singletary, 59 F.3d 1095, 110001 (11th Cir. 1995); United States v. Johnson, 56 F.3d 947, 955 (8th Cir. 1995); People v. Stitely, 108 P.3d 182, 196 (Cal. (determining that the Davis rule applies only after valid waiver, as a way of reconciling the rule with the “historic presumption against finding waiver of constitutional rights” and distinguishing between invocation and waiver). Although there is some evidence suggesting that DeWeaver requested to go back to jail before waiving his Miranda rights, he argues on appeal that the request was made post-waiver and that any other interpretation of the evidence would be unreasonable. By considering whether it was an invocation and not how it affected waiver, the state appellate court treated the request as though it was made after the waiver. Because this is a reasonable interpretation of the evidence, and DeWeaver concedes this point, we consider his request as being made post-waiver. We do not address whether applying the Davis rule to such a request made before a valid waiver would be contrary to Supreme Court precedent because the issue is not properly before us. DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS 2209 2005); State v. Payne, 199 P.3d 123, 133-34 (Idaho 2008); State v. Walker, 118 P.3d 935, 943-44 (Wash. Ct. App. 2005). This court has several times declined to decide whether the Davis requirement of a clear and unequivocal invocation applies to the right to remain silent. See United States v. Rodriguez, 518 F.3d 1072, 1078 n.5 (9th Cir. 2008) (avoiding addressing the issue and noting that this court had so demurred in four prior cases). We similarly decline to do so here. The question before us is not whether the Davis rule applies to an invocation of the right to remain silent, but whether the state appellate court contravened Supreme Court precedent by applying it in that manner. See Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405-06 (2000). [4] In similar circumstances, the First Circuit, which has also withheld judgment regarding the application of Davis to the invocation of the right to remain silent, held that it could not “deem unreasonable a conclusion by the [state] courts . . . that [was] consistent with the approach taken by so many respected tribunals.’ ” James v. Marshall, 322 F.3d 103, 108 (1st Cir. 2003) (quoting Bui v. DiPaolo, 170 F.3d 232, 239 (1st Cir. 1999)). We, likewise, could not conclude that application of the Davis rule to an invocation of the right to remain silent is contrary to or an unreasonable application of Supreme Court precedent where the Supreme Court has neither “squarely addresse[d]” when an ambiguous statement amounts to an invocation of the right to remain silent nor refused to extend the Davis rule to an invocation of the right to remain silent. Wright v. Van Patten, 128 S.Ct. 743, 746 (2008). [5] In this case, although the state appellate court never expressly applied Davis’s objective inquiry in analyzing DeWeaver’s request to return to jail, its reasoning and result are not contrary to Supreme Court precedent.2 See Early v. 2 The state appellate court based its ruling on three cases: Delap v. Dugger, 890 F.2d 285, 293 (11th Cir. 1989), in which the court held, pre2210 DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS Packer, 537 U.S. 3, 8 (2002) (noting that a state-court decision is not contrary to Supreme Court precedent for failure to cite such decisions, “so long as neither the reasoning nor the result of the state-court decision contradicts [it]”). The state appellate court concluded that asking to be taken back to jail “did not evidence a refusal to talk further.” People v. DeWeaver, No. A091078, 2001 WL 1515830, at  (Cal. Ct. App. Nov. 28, 2001). In so doing, it considered that DeWeaver said nothing about ending the interrogation or not wanting to talk, that the officers interrogating DeWeaver knew that he knew how to invoke his right to silence because he had done so a few days earlier, and Sergeant Joyner’s testimony that he did not understand DeWeaver’s request to be an invocation.3 Id. The state appellate court could properly conclude from these facts that a reasonable officer in the circumstances would not have understood DeWeaver’s request to be an invocation of the right to silence. See Davis, 512 U.S. at 459. Davis, that a suspect did not invoke (equivocally or otherwise) his right to remain silent where he asked when he would be allowed to go home; United States v. Clark, 67 F.3d 1154, 1163 (5th Cir. 1995), vacated on other grounds, Coffman v. United States, 519 U.S. 802 (1996), in which the court cursorily stated that questioning that continued after a suspect asked to go home but then consented to further questioning was not coercive or improper and, even if it was, admission of the statement had been harmless; and Mueller v. Angelone, 181 F.3d 557, 574 (4th Cir. 1999), in which the court held that a suspect had not clearly invoked his right to counsel under Davis when he asked the interrogating officer if the officer thought he needed an attorney. 3 The state appellate court noted that DeWeaver continued to speak with Joyner after making the request to go back to jail, DeWeaver, 2001 WL 1515830, at , but we do not consider DeWeaver’s post-request responses to further interrogation in determining whether DeWeaver’s request was ambiguous. See Smith v. Illinois, 469 U.S. 91, 100 (1984) (“[A]n accused’s postrequest responses to further interrogation may not be used to cast retrospective doubt on the clarity of the initial request itself.”). Given our conclusion that his request was ambiguous, any error in the state appellate court’s consideration of his subsequent statements was harmless. See Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 637-38 (1993). DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS 2211 [6] Thus, the state appellate court’s reasoning and result are in accord with Davis and a reasonable extension of that rule to the right to remain silent. In such a case, AEDPA requires us to let stand the state court’s ruling that no Miranda violation required suppression of DeWeaver’s statement. See Early, 537 U.S. at 8; 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).
[7] A confession must be suppressed, even absent a Miranda violation, when the totality of the circumstances demonstrates that the confession was involuntary. Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428, 434 (2000). However, if interrogators obtained a confession after Miranda warnings and a valid waiver, the confession was likely voluntary. See Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U.S. 600, 608-09 (2004) (“[G]iving the warnings and getting a waiver has generally produced a virtual ticket of admissibility.”); Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 433 n.20 (1984) (“[C]ases in which a defendant can make a colorable argument that a self-incriminating statement was ‘compelled’ despite the fact that the law enforcement authorities adhered to the dictates of Miranda are rare”). [8] In his petition, DeWeaver makes no argument that the Miranda warnings given were insufficient or that his waiver was involuntary. Instead he relies on his account of a coercive interrogation and vague allegations that his “will was overborne.” The state courts discredited DeWeaver’s version of the interrogation as coercive, noting DeWeaver’s own statement that Joyner made no threats or promises. People v. DeWeaver, No. A091078, 2001 WL 1515830, at -7 (Cal. Ct. App. Nov. 28, 2001). Believing Joyner’s account of the interrogation, the court noted that the remaining vague allegations of coercive techniques consisted only of the coercion inherent in a custodial interrogation, which is dispelled by sufficient Miranda warnings and waiver. Id. Because warnings were given, a valid waiver obtained, and the record gives no indication that his confession was other than a product of 2212 DEWEAVER v. RUNNELS his free will, we conclude that the state appellate court’s decision was not contrary to Supreme Court precedent or an “unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2).