Opinion ID: 491574
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Effectiveness of Representation in Seeking to Suppress the Confessions.

Text: 8 As a threshold matter, effective assistance of counsel is a two-prong issue. The petitioner must establish both that counsel's performance was not reasonably adequate and that petitioner was prejudiced by that unreasonable performance to the point that he did not receive a fair trial. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 674, 693 (1984). Elledge's basic claim is that his counsel was ineffective because he failed to use the proper theory in challenging the confessions. The two confessions require different analytic frameworks; therefore, we will discuss each separately.
9 Elledge's counsel sought to suppress the first confession, arguing that it was involuntary because it was physically coerced. Counsel maintained that Elledge had no sleep the night of his arrest and interrogation, had no food and drink during his interrogation, confessed while hung over and under the residual impact of drugs and alcohol, and was in a general daze at the time of his confession. 3 Counsel did not argue, however, that Elledge's fifth amendment rights were violated when the police repeatedly reinterrogated and rewarned him of his Miranda rights despite Elledge's alleged invocation of his right to silence. This omission was unreasonable representation according to Elledge. We disagree. 10 The test for the performance prong of Strickland is objective reasonableness under prevailing professional norms. Id. at 688, 104 S.Ct. at 2065, 80 L.Ed.2d at 694. A reviewing court conducting such an examination must view the performance at the time it occurred, avoid the distorting effects of hindsight, id., and indulge a strong presumption that counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance.... Id. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2066, 80 L.Ed.2d at 694. 11 Until Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 102-04, 96 S.Ct. 321, 326, 46 L.Ed.2d 313, 320-22 (Dec. 9, 1975), repeated reinterrogation in conjunction with repeated Miranda warnings was not recognized as a potentially coercive technique. Elledge's counsel sought to suppress the first confession in March, 1975; obviously, he did not have the benefit of Mosley at that time. Furthermore, as of March, 1975, no Florida courts had held that such procedures were coercive. Reasonably effective representation cannot and does not include a requirement to make arguments based on predictions of how the law may develop. See Sullivan v. Wainwright, 695 F.2d 1306, 1309 (11th Cir.), aff'd, 464 U.S. 109, 104 S.Ct. 450, 78 L.Ed.2d 266 (1983) (per curiam). Thus, Elledge's claim fails on the first, performance prong of Strickland.
12 Even if we assume, arguendo, that counsel's performance was unreasonable because he did not attack the police's alleged failure to honor Elledge's invocation of his right to remain silent, 4 we find that no prejudice attached as a result, because the second confession was admissible--under either of two alternative grounds--even if the first confession was not. 13 A confession that follows on the heels of an involuntary confession may be tainted thereby and thus inadmissible. See Martin v. Wainwright, 770 F.2d 918, 928 (11th Cir.1985), modified on other grounds, 781 F.2d 185 (11th Cir.1986). The taint transfers, however, only if the first confession was inadmissible as involuntary, i.e., coerced and not the product of a free will. See Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 105 S.Ct. 1285, 1294, 84 L.Ed.2d 222, 231 (1985); Martin, 770 F.2d at 928. This circuit has held that not honoring a request to stop questioning is no different from failing to give the Miranda warning in the first place; while both are technical violations of Miranda, neither violates the fifth amendment. Martin, 770 F.2d at 928-29 (relying on Elstad, 470 U.S. at 308, 105 S.Ct. at 1293, 84 L.Ed.2d at 231). Thus, confessions obtained by such violations, while inadmissible because they run afoul of Miranda 's per se bar, are not involuntary 5 and do not taint any subsequent confessions. Id. Therefore, the second, taped confession was not made inadmissible even if the first confession resulted from technical Miranda violations. 14 Furthermore, even if the first confession was both violative of Miranda and involuntary, Elledge cannot prove he was prejudiced by admission of the second confession because it was sufficiently distinct from the first confession and, therefore, admissible. See Elstad, 470 U.S. at 309, 105 S.Ct. at 1294, 84 L.Ed.2d at 232-33 (dicta). When an earlier confession has been coerced and, thus, was involuntary, a court seeking to determine whether a subsequent confession is tainted thereby must look to the time that passes between confessions, the change in place of interrogations, and the change in identity of the interrogators. Id.; see Holleman v. Duckworth, 700 F.2d 391, 396 (7th Cir.1983); United States v. Gresham, 585 F.2d 103, 108 (5th Cir.1978). 6 15 In Elledge's case, a full day had passed between the confessions; he had slept and eaten; new interrogators were employed (although his original interrogator was present for part of the new questioning); and the interrogation occurred in entirely different and comfortable surroundings. Additionally, his inquisitors did not use the first confession as leverage to coerce the second. See Gresham, 585 F.2d at 108. 16 Consequently, if counsel had succeeded in suppressing the first confession by means of a Mosley -type attack, the second confession nevertheless would have been admissible. Therefore, even were we to assume that counsel's failure to adopt such a strategy rendered his performance unreasonable, Elledge cannot demonstrate that any prejudice inhered as a result. Counsel's performance thus was not ineffective under Strickland. 17