Court Opinion

ID: 9843058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:25:28.829539+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:27.145509
License: Public Domain

O’SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge,
with whom BEEZER and NOONAN, Circuit Judges join, dissenting:
To paraphrase the great Bard of Avon, “[t]he [majority] doth protest too much, methinks.” W. Shakespeare, Hamlet, III, ii. In a noble attempt to vindicate important legal principles, my colleagues have misinterpreted and exaggerated the essential and dispositive facts of this case. More importantly, they have unjustifiably expanded the prophylactic rules that govern the waiver of an accused’s constitutional rights to legal assistance and against self-incrimination. I therefore respectfully dissent.
I
A
In Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981), the Supreme Court held that “an accused ..., having expressed his desire to deal with the police only through counsel, is not subject to further interrogation by the authorities until counsel has been made available to him, unless the accused himself initiates further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police.” Id. at 484-85, 101 S.Ct. at 1884-85 (emphasis added). Elaborating upon the importance of this italicized language, which my colleagues now excise from the Court’s holding, the Court wrote:
In concluding that the fruits of [a second] interrogation initiated by the police on January 20 could not be used against Edwards, we do not hold or imply that Edwards was powerless to countermand his election [to remain silent and to consult an attorney] or that the authorities could in no event use any incriminating statements made by Edwards prior to his having access to counsel. Had Edwards initiated the meeting on January 20, nothing in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments would prohibit the police from merely listening to his voluntary, volunteered statements and using them against him at the trial. The Fifth Amendment right identified in Miranda is the right to have counsel present at any custodial interrogation. Absent such interrogation, there would have been no infringement of the right that Edwards invoked and there would be no occasion to determine whether there had been a valid waiver. Rhode Island v. Innis, [446 U.S. 291, 298 n. 2, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1688 n. 2, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980) ], makes this sufficiently clear.
*428Id. at 485-86, 101 S.Ct. at 1885 (emphasis added).
Two years after Edwards, in Oregon v. Bradshaw, 462 U.S. 1039, 103 S.Ct. 2830, 77 L.Ed.2d 405 (1983), a plurality of the Court announced a two-part test by which to gauge the admissibility of a confession offered by a suspect after his invocation of the right to counsel. The confession is admissible, the Court held, if (a) the suspect initiates the discussion that leads to it and (b) the totality of the circumstances reveals that the purported waiver is both voluntary and intelligent. Id. at 1044-46, 103 S.Ct. at 2834-35 (plurality opinion); see also id. at 1048-50, 103 S.Ct. at 2836-37 (Powell, J., concurring in the judgment).
More recently, in Arizona v. Roberson, 486 U.S. 675, 108 S.Ct. 2093, 100 L.Ed.2d 704 (1988), in language that the majority surprisingly quotes and emphasizes, the Supreme Court held that in the wake of a request for counsel “it is presumed that any subsequent waiver that has come at the authorities’ behest, and not at the suspect’s own instigation, is itself the product of the ‘inherently compelling pressures’ and not the purely voluntary choice of the suspect.” Id. at 681, 108 S.Ct. at 2097-98, quoted ante at 421 (with same emphasis added). Mirroring the more explicit language of Edwards and Bradshaw, Roberson’s tacit suggestion is that a subsequent waiver “at the suspect’s own instigation” is not subject to such presumption. Similarly, in Minnick v. Mississippi, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 486, 112 L.Ed.2d 489 (1990), a recent decision wholly neglected by my colleagues, the Supreme Court held that when an accused requests counsel, “interrogation must cease, and officials may not reinitiate interrogation without counsel present, whether or not the accused has consulted with his attorney.” Id. 111 S.Ct. at 491 (emphasis added). Like Bradshaw and Roberson, Minnick is a conscious and careful echo of Edwards. Writing for the Court in Minnick, Justice Kennedy repeatedly stressed that the prophylactic protection of these several rulings only extends to situations involving “police-initiated questioning.” Id.; see also id. (“a fair reading of Edwards and subsequent cases demonstrates that we have interpreted the rule to bar police-initiated interrogation unless the accused has counsel with him at the time of questioning”) (emphasis added); id. at 489 (“ ‘a valid waiver of th[e] right [to have counsel present during questioning] cannot be established by showing only that [the accused] responded to further police-initiated custodial interrogation ...’”) (quoting Edwards, 451 U.S. at 484, 101 S.Ct. at 1884) (emphasis added).
Indeed, the Minnick Court went out of its way to explain that “Edwards does not foreclose finding a waiver of Fifth Amendment protections after counsel has been requested, provided that the accused has initiated the conversation or discussions with the authorities; but that is not the case before us.” Id. at 492 (emphasis added). I respectfully submit that what was not before the Supreme Court in Minnick is before this court today.
B
Given that the Supreme Court itself has denied that Edwards compels the majority’s holding, it is curious indeed for the majority to suggest that the officers’ conduct represented a “textbook violation of Edwards v. Arizona.” Ante at 417.1 Even the majority admits that Collazo initiated the conversation that immediately led to his confession of guilt:
Collazo requested to talk to a lawyer. Instead of respecting his request, however, Officer Destro (Officer Rolen’s *429partner) attempted to pressure him into dispensing with counsel and talking to them about the homicide....
The police then departed....
Collazo was then permitted to call and to see his wife, a legal secretary. She came to the police station and had a lengthy discussion with him, the substance of which is unknown. Some three hours after the officers’ departure, Colla-zo contacted a sergeant and asked, “Where are the investigators?” The sergeant correctly construed this as a request to talk to them, and they were so notified and returned to the station. Col-lazo was again advised of his Miranda rights, and indicated he had changed his mind and was now willing to talk. He then essentially confessed to his non[-]shooting role in the crimes for which he had been charged and arrested.
Ante at 413-14 (footnote omitted).
Under a plain reading of these facts and the Bradshaw and Edwards rules, Colla-zo’s confession was both voluntary and legally admissible in the case against him. After a three hour hiatus, during which time he had the opportunity to (and did) have “a lengthy discussion” with a trusted confidante, Collazo actively sought out the police officers who were investigating the Metzger homicide.2 The officers, who had long since left the police station, were then summoned back upon his request. Once again, and notably without making any impermissible suggestions this time, the officers advised Collazo of his Miranda rights. Only after affirmatively acknowledging that he understood those rights four times and that he voluntarily had changed his mind, did Collazo confess.3
No one disputes that the officers’ conduct during the initial conversation was improper and reprehensible. The issue, however, is whether that improper conduct produced Collazo’s later confession. As the Supreme Court opined in Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980):
[I]t may be said ... that the [petitioner] was subjected to “subtle compulsion.” But that is not the end of the inquiry. It must also be established that a suspect’s incriminating response was the product of words or actions on the part of the police that they should have known were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. This was not established in the present case.
Id. at 303, 100 S.Ct. at 1691 (footnote omitted and emphasis added). On the contrary, *430California carried its burden at the trial level of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that Collazo’s waiver and confession were voluntary. See Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 168, 107 S.Ct. 515, 522, 93 L.Ed.2d 473 (1986) (“Whenever the State bears the burden of proof in a motion to suppress a statement that the defendant claims was obtained in violation of our Miranda doctrine, the State need prove waiver only by a preponderance of the evidence.”); see generally Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477, 92 S.Ct. 619, 30 L.Ed.2d 618 (1972). In fact, as the majority points out, “the trial court found Collazo’s confession ‘voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt,’ and that there was ‘no taint whatsoever to his ultimate statement.’ ” Ante at 415 n. 3 (quoting trial transcript).
Even if the state had not met its burden, however, the “totality of the circumstances” plainly reveals that Collazo voluntarily initiated the discussion during which he confessed and, further, that he initiated that discussion precisely in order to confess. See Colorado v. Spring, 479 U.S. 564, 573, 107 S.Ct. 851, 857, 93 L.Ed.2d 954 (1987) (“ ‘Only if the “totality of the circumstances surrounding the interrogation” reveal[s] both an uncoerced choice and the requisite level of comprehension may a court properly conclude that the Miranda rights have been waived.’ ”) (quoting Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 421, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 1140, 89 L.Ed.2d 410 (1986) (quoting Fare v. Michael C, 442 U.S. 707, 725, 99 S.Ct. 2560, 2572, 61 L.Ed.2d 197 (1979))). As a prior panel of this court observed:
Collazo had a prior criminal history, and was experienced in the routine of police interrogation. He was a paid informant of the DEA. There was a lapse of approximately three hours between the first interrogation session and Colla-zo’s subsequent confession. Collazo conferred with his wife in the interim. Finally, at the time of his confession, Colla-zo stated that he was not acting under pressure of any promise or threat.
Collazo v. Estelle, 898 F.2d 87, 89 (9th Cir.1989), reh’g en banc granted, id. at 91. Collazo’s familiarity with the legal process, his ability to consult his wife, his affirmation that he understood and yet still wished to waive his rights, the passage of a considerable period of time, and the complete absence of any evidence to suggest that he was acting under duress — when weighed together — demonstrate “a break in the chain of events sufficient to insulate the statement from all that went on before.” United States v. Patterson, 812 F.2d 1188, 1192 (9th Cir.1987) (citing Clewis v. Texas, 386 U.S. 707, 710, 87 S.Ct. 1338, 1340, 18 L.Ed.2d 423 (1967)), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 922, 108 S.Ct. 1093, 99 L.Ed.2d 255 (1988).4
To borrow from the language of torts, a preponderance of the evidence indicates that Collazo’s own free will was the “supervening cause” of his confession. Under such circumstances and where the accused, rather than the police, initiates the relevant discussion, Edwards and its progeny clearly indicate that a confession is properly admissible. Virtually all other circuits that *431have addressed this question have so concluded, and a district court within this circuit has agreed. See United States v. Velasquez, 885 F.2d 1076, 1088-89 (3d Cir.1989) (suspect who initiated further discussion and confessed after first invoking Miranda rights effectively waived those rights), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 1321, 108 L.Ed.2d 497 (1990); Plazinich v. Lynaugh, 843 F.2d 836 (5th Cir.1988) (same), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1031, 109 S.Ct. 841, 102 L.Ed.2d 973 (1989); United States v. Comosona, 848 F.2d 1110, 1112-13 (10th Cir.1988) (same); Filce v. James, 833 F.2d 1503 (11th Cir.1987) (same); Robinson v. Percy, 738 F.2d 214, 221 (7th Cir.1984) (same); Fetterly v. Paskett, 744 F.Supp. 966, 970-71 (D.Idaho 1990) (same); cf. United States v. Gomez, 927 F.2d 1530, 1539 (11th Cir.1991).
C
The majority is only able to avoid this conclusion through a combination of dubious factfinding and wordplay that purportedly permits the court to say that Collazo did not really “initiate” the discussion that led to his confession.
First, the majority claims that there is an “evident linkage between the [initial] coercion and the [subsequent] confession.” Ante at 420. In the majority’s words, “we find ... that Collazo’s initiation of the communication leading to the second interrogation was the product of the coercive statements made by the police during the first, illegal interrogation.” Ante at 420. Appearing as it does for the first time in the long history of this case in the latter pages of the majority’s opinion, this purely factual finding is hardly believable. Indeed, in four previous decisions in this very case, the state trial and appellate courts, the district court, and a prior panel of this court all expressly found that there was no linkage — evident or otherwise — between the officers’ initial comments and Collazo’s later confession.5 Again, as the majority concedes, the trial court found that Colla-zo’s confession was “voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt.” See ante at 415 n. 3; see also Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 546-47, 101 S.Ct. 764, 768-69, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981) (in habeas proceedings, the factual findings of state trial and appellate courts are presumed correct if fairly supported by the record). Indeed, as the state points out, Collazo himself repeatedly affirmed at the time of his confession that his waiver was the product of his own free will, and the trial court agreed. My colleagues, however, dispense with that finding and substitute their own judgment, determining on the basis of a cold record that those affirmations are not credible but that Collazo’s subsequent, counsel-guided testimony at the suppression hearing is. See ante at 429. Credibility determinations, though, are not the province of this court. We must accept those determinations as they appear in the record, and the majority is unable to demonstrate where in the record there is any affirmative evidence of their alleged “evident linkage.” The facts simply do not support the finding.6
Moreover, the majority’s characterization of the second discussion as a “second interrogation” is itself inappropriate: “ ‘Interro*432gation/ as conceptualized in the Miranda opinion, must reflect a measure of compulsion above and beyond that inherent in custody itself.” Innis, 446 U.S. at 300, 100 S.Ct. at 1689 (footnote omitted). “By custodial interrogation, we mean questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way.” Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1612, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) (emphasis added). Collazo initiated the second discussion and was not subjected to substantial pressures during that discussion before he actually confessed. Under similar circumstances, this court has held that a discussion may not be characterized as an “interrogation” for purposes of Miranda. See Shedelbower v. Estelle, 885 F.2d 570, 573 (9th Cir.1989), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 975, 112 L.Ed.2d 1060 (1991); United States v. Thierman, 678 F.2d 1331, 1334-35 (9th Cir.1982); see also United States ex rel. Church v. DeRobertis, 771 F.2d 1015, 1017-20 (7th Cir.1985); Robinson v. Percy, 738 F.2d at 218-19. Under similar circumstances, the Supreme Court has also suggested that Miranda rights may not even be implicated. See Innis, 446 U.S. at 298 n. 2, 100 S.Ct. at 1688 n. 2; Edwards, 451 U.S. at 485-86, 101 S.Ct. at 1885; see also Arizona v. Mauro, 481 U.S. 520, 107 S.Ct. 1931, 95 L.Ed.2d 458 (1987).
By declaring the existence of an “evident linkage” between the two discussions, the majority seeks to do with the facts what it clearly cannot do with the law: escape the unmistakable implication of Edwards, Bradshaw, Roberson, Innis, and Minnick that when the accused initiates the conversation, he may thereby render harmless prior police improprieties and render admissible subsequent incriminating statements. By holding, as a factual matter, that Colla-zo was acting under the undue influence of the officers’ earlier comments when he later requested to speak with them, the majority concludes that Collazo did not actually “initiate” the second conversation at all but that, in fact, the police did. Ante at 422. This cannot be believed, and as a result, neither can the court’s holding that Collazo’s confession was coerced.
This, then, is the critical flaw in the majority’s analysis: Part III of the court’s opinion presents a compelling but largely irrelevant survey of our Miranda jurisprudence and its underlying policy rationales only to conclude, in dicta, that the conduct of the police during the first conversation was not “compatible with a system of justice that does not permit police coercion” and typifies behavior that “offends due process as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.” Ante at 416, 419-20. Part IV then attempts to resuscitate Part III, which is otherwise entirely dicta, by finding the all-important “evident linkage”: the ethereal thread of coercion that ties the two conversations — and the two parts of the majority’s analysis — together. The structure of the argument is inherently seductive. Surely no one disagrees with Part III and its broad affirmations of an accused’s rights, but properly understood, Part III has no bearing on the specific facts or question before us.
In short, because there was no appreciable foul play associated with the incriminating second conversation and because Col-lazo himself initiated that conversation in order to confess, the majority’s holding cannot stand unless one is able to impute the impropriety that occurred during the first conversation into the second one as well. This requires a finding of not one, but two involuntary acts on Collazo’s part. First, one must find that Collazo’s request to speak with the officers — after the three-hour hiatus and after the lengthy discussion with his wife — was itself coerced, and then one must find that his subsequent confession was also coerced. The facts support neither finding. Collazo affirmatively initiated the second conversation and voluntarily admitted his guilt.7
*433D
If the majority’s misreading of the facts were my only complaint, this would be a briefer dissent. A view of police coercion as expansive as the majority’s, however, has greater ramifications. If allowed to stand, the majority’s holding will unjustifiably extend the current reach of Miranda’s prophylactic protections. See Connelly, 479 U.S. at 166, 107 S.Ct. at 521 (cautioning against “expanding ‘currently applicable exclusionary rules by erecting additional barriers to placing truthful and probative evidence before state juries’ ”) (quoting Lego, 404 U.S. at 488-89, 92 S.Ct. at 626).
The “unless” clause in the Edwards holding, the qualification in the Roberson holding, the very essence of the Bradshaiv and Innis holdings, and the careful caveat in Minnick — which all suggest that suspect -initiated discussions may produce admissible confessions in the wake of police improprieties — are at risk of becoming dead letters within this circuit. If a court can find upon these facts that the accused did not “initiate” the relevant discussion and did not voluntarily confess thereafter, then one wonders under what conditions a confession in the wake of prior police misconduct will ever be admissible in court. In short, the majority’s holding goes a long way toward establishing the proposition that police misconduct creates a per se violation of Miranda that subsequent voluntary acts of the accused can never render harmless. See United States v. Anderson, 929 F.2d 96, 99 (2d Cir.1991) (“the application of a per se rule is inappropriate”). Because Miranda is a prophylactic rule — and not a constitutional right — such a proposition of law has no rationale to recommend it. See ante at 418 (acknowledging that “Miranda ‘rights’ are ‘not themselves rights protected by the Constitution’ ”) (quoting Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 444, 94 S.Ct. 2357, 2363, 41 L.Ed.2d 182 (1974)); see also Roberson, 486 U.S. at 688-93, 108 S.Ct. at 2101-04 (Kennedy, J., dissenting).
II
Courts must be wary of exaggerating what are properly recognized as contemptible improprieties into grandiose visions of injustice. The temptation to entertain such visions is especially great in cases that pit lonely criminal defendants against the police and prosecutorial powers of their state governments. The danger in succumbing to such temptation is that rules designed to secure the integrity of the legal process can gradually take the form of escape valves whose only notable effect is to provide safe haven for indisputably guilty persons. Cf Fulminante, 111 S.Ct. at 1264 (holding that even the admission of a coerced confession may be harmless error and noting that “ ‘the central purpose of a criminal trial is to decide the factual question of the defendant’s guilt or innocence’ ”) (quoting Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 681, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 1436, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986)); see also Robinson v. Borg, 918 F.2d 1387, 1394 (9th Cir.1990) (Trott, J., dissenting) (warning against the dangers of expansive judicial applications of the Miranda rules and urging the judiciary “to monitor carefully the costs of these rules as they are applied to the cases that come before us”).
In my view, that is precisely what has happened in this case and what could happen to this court’s Miranda jurisprudence generally. Through a dramatic envoy, our thoughtful bard once warned:
We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
And let it keep one shape till custom make it,
Their perch, and not their terror.
W. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, II, i. The majority has rallied behind such a straw man here, and I therefore earnestly hope that the tenure of today’s ruling as the law of this circuit will be short-lived.

. In Part III of its opinion, the majority discusses Collazo’s initial conversation with the two officers. In Part IV, the majority discusses the second conversation, which Collazo himself initiated and during which he confessed. Significantly, the majority claims that a "textbook violation” of Edwards occurred during the first conversation, but that observation is a straw man in the context of this appeal because Colla-zo did not confess at that time. The majority does not contend that any violation of Edwards —textbook or otherwise — occurred during the second conversation. Rather, it creatively construes the facts to avoid confronting the reality that, because Collazo initiated the second conversation, Edwards and its progeny suggest that his confession may be admitted. See infra Part I-C.

. The majority is undoubtedly correct in concluding that the right to have counsel present during an interrogation contemplates more than the assistance of a legal secretary — especially when the collective judgment of the accused and the secretary may be clouded by their having a spousal (or other non-legal) relationship. See ante at 421-22. That observation, however, would only be relevant if the issue before us were whether the police had honored Collazo’s request for an attorney. Instead, the issue before us is whether Collazo voluntarily waived his rights and confessed his crime. "The voluntary or involuntary character of a confession is determined by a conclusion as to whether the accused, at the time he confesses, is in possession of ‘mental freedom' to confess to or deny a suspected participation in a crime." Lyons v. Oklahoma, 322 U.S. 596, 602, 64 S.Ct. 1208, 1212, 88 L.Ed. 1481 (1944). The fact that Colla-zo "had a lengthy discussion” with a trusted confidante immediately before admitting his guilt — regardless of that confidante's legal know-how — is supporting evidence of such "mental freedom.”

. In a strained attempt to demonstrate evidence of coercion, the majority points out that Officer Rolen "opened the second exchange by referring explicitly to the[ ] earlier discussion” and then did not cleanly readvise Collazo of his Miranda rights because he "went through the rights using mostly the past tense_" Ante at 421-22. The majority, however, accurately describes the discussion immediately preceding the confession as follows:
Then Officer Rolen said, “And then I asked you if you understood all those rights. Do you understand all that — Okay. Now understanding all those rights and after talking with your wife and so forth, have you changed your mind now and do you want to talk to us?” To this, Collazo said, "Yes.”
Ante at 422. In my view, there is nothing "passive” about Collazo's waiver here and nothing peculiar about readvising a suspect of his rights while referring to a previous advisement in the past tense. Indeed, the tape of Collazo’s confession reveals that during the second conversation the officers were extraordinarily patient and careful, asking and ensuring that the accused understood his rights four times before allowing him to proceed.

. The Patterson court listed four factors that "have been identified [by the Supreme Court] as relevant to the issue of whether a statement made after an involuntary statement is voluntary." 812 F.2d at 1192 (emphasis added). The majority applies these four factors and concludes that “Collazo’s alleged waiver and confession were not voluntary.” Ante at 421; see also ante at 420-22. Patterson, however, is not directly on point: Collazo did not make any coerced, self-incriminating statements during his initial conversation with the police.
Nonetheless, I agree that the Patterson factors can inform our analysis here. I disagree, however, with the majority’s conclusions under that analysis — particularly its conclusions that "the passage of only three hours is insignificant” and that Collazo's previous experience with law enforcement "is at best a neutral factor.” Ante at 421-22. In Robinson v. Percy, 738 F.2d 214 (7th Cir.1984), the Seventh Circuit found a valid waiver under the totality of the circumstances even though "only a couple of minutes elapsed between the [officer’s] illegal questioning and [the accused’s] own confession.” Id. at 221. Similarly, in United States v. Velasquez, 885 F.2d 1076 (3d Cir.1989), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 1321, 108 L.Ed.2d 497 (1990), the Third Circuit found a valid waiver where the accused, who had requested counsel only thirty minutes before, initiated further discussions and confessed only moments after a DEA agent lied to her in an effort to induce her to speak. The facts in neither of these cases are as compelling as the facts here.

. Some have argued that under such circumstances as these, federal courts should apply the holding of Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465, 96 S.Ct. 3037, 49 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1976), to foreclose the collateral review of a state conviction altogether. See Duckworth v. Eagan, 492 U.S. 195, 205-14, 109 S.Ct. 2875, 2881-85, 106 L.Ed.2d 166 (1989) (O’Connor, J., with whom Scalia, J., joins, concurring).

. The officers’ comments during the first discussion were “coercive,” but that does not mean that they necessarily resulted in "coercion.” Collazo did not confess during the initial conversation. To link his later confession to the officers’ earlier coercive comments requires some independent evidence of actual coercion. I submit that there is none and that the majority has not shown otherwise. The majority places critical weight on Collazo’s concern, during the second conversation, with what might happen to him. See ante at 422. It seems wholly natural to me, however, for someone faced with such serious criminal charges to ask a police officer what fate may await him; the question is in no way indicative of an overpowered will. Nor do I regard the question as in any way referential to the prior conversation. The majority’s conclusion that Collazo’s query ineluctably and unmistakably demonstrates "actual linkage” escapes me. Ante at 422.

. Having concluded that Collazo’s waiver and subsequent confession were voluntary, I need not address the question of harmless error: the admission of a voluntary confession is by definition not error, and where there is no error, there can be no harmful error. But see Arizona v. Fulminante, - U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 1266-67, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991) (Kennedy, J., *433concurring in the judgment) (concluding that confession was not coerced but, reaching harmless-error issue in light of majority’s contrary holding, concluding that its admission was not harmless error).