Court Opinion

ID: 9453888
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:27:09.909327+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:51.008913
License: Public Domain

BURGER, Circuit Judge
(concurring) :
I concur without reservation in the result reached by the court in this case. I file this separate statement only to indicate that I have grave doubt that the notion of a “divisible arrest” is a fruitful concept and I fear it may tend to confuse the basic issue. Indeed, I do not know precisely what it means. I question that it is helpful to make tentative and ambiguous “probes” at a concept in an area where accepted words of art have well settled meaning.
To my mind, the importance of the investigation of crimes other than that for which the original arrest was made is not that there may be something resembling a' new “arrest,” but that the period of “unnecessary delay” forbidden by Fed.R.Crim.P. 5(a) has then been reached. Necessary delay can reasonably relate to time to administratively process an accused with booking, fingerprinting and other steps and sometimes even to make same limited preliminary investigation into his connection with the crime for which he was arrested, especially when it is directed to possible exculpation of the one arrested. However, when delay of presentment to the magistrate is for the purpose of investigation of other crimes, then there is no doubt that the “delay” has become “unnecessary.”
*580When we reach the question of whether testimony describing a lineup identification made during such unnecessary delay can be admitted at trial, the fact that the later investigation focuses on crimes other than that for which the accused was arrested does not serve as a distinguishing factor. I have difficulty believing the majority means that evidence as to lineup identifications made during unnecessary delay is admissible if it relates to the crime for which the accused was arrested but inadmissible when it relates to other crimes. If that is not the intended result, I suggest that there is no valid basis in this case for relying upon the fact that the investigation dealt with other crimes.
It is clear that opinions of this court dealing with the Mallory rule did not apply it in the lineup situation. See Copeland v. United States, 120 U.S.App.D.C. 5, 343 F.2d 287 (1964); Fredricksen v. United States, 105 U.S.App.D.C. 262, 266 F.2d 463 (1959). But I do not agree that these cases are inapplicable here because there is a “secondary detention.” The reason our earlier holdings do not apply is that the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967), has made the underlying rationale of those cases irrelevant. As my concurring opinion in Williams v. United States, 120 U.S.App.D.C. 244, 247, 345 F.2d 733, 736 (1965), indicated, the reason for not applying Mallory to a lineup identification was that a lineup in the absence of counsel before Wade was a perfectly legitimate procedure, see Copeland v. United States, supra, and that Mallory was concerned with improper “interrogation.” It was natural for the cases following Mallory to concentrate on the exclusion of utterances, but not other forms of evidence. But Wade has changed this. Now that the right to counsel is an integral part of the lineup procedure, the warnings that are given at presentment and the opportunity to have counsel appointed are highly relevant to the lineup situation. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 5(b); 18 U.S. C. § 3006A(b) (1964). Since the Mallory rule was a response to the protections afforded by prompt presentment, it is appropriately applied to the line-up situation in the wake of Wade.
To introduce the concept of a “divisible arrest” seems to me to divert us from the heart of the matter and I submit it has led the majority to rely on the absence of “probable cause” for this fictional “arrest” concerning the other crimes. Apparently--by- this the majority means that there is no probable cause for an arrest for these other crimes. At the same time the majority agrees that “police have, of course, a legitimate interest in seeking to explore the possible relationships between persons apprehended * * * and other crimes * * *.” But compliance with Rule 5(a) as to the initial custody will not supply the “probable cause” concerning other crimes. The mere fact of presentment does not assure that a finding as to probable cause will be made at once, even as to the initial arrest, since continuances frequently occur. Compare Fed.R.Crim.P. 5(b), with Fed.R.Crim.P. 5(c).
The Supreme Court in Mallory was concerned not with the “probable cause” finding when dealing with delays in presentment, but with the judicial warnings of the presentment. These same warnings are relevant to the lineup situation in the present case. Once judicial warnings are given, I think there can be no doubt that the “legitimate interest” which the majority acknowledges the police have would warrant a magistrate in permiting the arrested person to be placed in lineups, subject of course to Wade requirements.
As I read the majority opinion, once there is a timely presentment, then Rule 5(a) has been satisfied and continued detention may result. This is correct, of course. The matter of placing one in a lineup when he is already in detention— whether temporarily under arrest or confined under a long sentence in a prison — is not the same as arresting a suspect off the street or from his home. The former is not being deprived of his *581liberty when placed in a lineup and the holdings in Wade and Mathis v. United States, 391 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1503, 20 L.Ed.2d 381 (1968), assure that such a prisoner will have proper warnings and counsel if he desires counsel. The reason for requiring probable cause for an arrest is to protect against arbitrary interference with liberty. When the condition of custody already exists, however, the constitutional requirement of an armrest on probable cause would be totally superfluous — a sheer ritual serving no legitimate protective function.