Opinion ID: 657224
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Improper Impeachment Claim

Text: 6 Prior to trial, Meis argued that his I had to blow him away statement should be suppressed because it had been made involuntarily and elicited in violation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1964). Without making an express finding concerning whether the statement had been voluntarily given, the trial court ruled that the State could not use the statement as direct evidence in its case-in-chief. The prosecutor used the statement on cross-examination of Meis, however, to impeach his testimony that he had accidently shot Schuchardt. 7 A statement by a defendant in circumstances violating the strictures of Miranda v. Arizona is admissible for impeachment purposes if the statement was made voluntarily. Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 397-98, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 2416-17, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978). The trial court's finding that the statement was voluntary must appear from the record with unmistakable clarity. Id. at 397 n. 12, 98 S.Ct. at 2416 n. 12 (quoting Sims v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 538, 544, 87 S.Ct. 639, 643, 17 L.Ed.2d 593 (1967)). 8 Meis argues that the suppressed statement should not have been admitted to impeach him because the trial court failed to make a specific finding that the statement had been made voluntarily. 9 As subsequent proceedings established, had the trial court made a specific finding at trial, it would have found that Meis had given the statement voluntarily. During Meis's second post-conviction proceeding, the judge who had presided at Meis's trial stated that his admission of Meis's statement for impeachment purposes constituted an independent determination by him that the statement had been voluntarily made. Bill of Exceptions, Proceedings before the Honorable Merritt C. Warren, Judge, on September 6, 1988, Vol. I at 7. This after-the-fact recordation of a finding of voluntariness, when viewed in the light of the fact that Meis neither alleges nor points to any evidence that the statement was given involuntarily, is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of Mincey and Sims.