Court Opinion

ID: 9721165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:50:10.367227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:23.770721
License: Public Domain

Karen R. Baiter, Judge, concurring. I agree with the majority that this case should be affirmed. I write separately because unlike the majority I see no need to address whether appellant was seized during the traffic stop or whether he voluntarily consented to a search of his shoes. I would not address those issues because appellant does not raise those arguments on appeal. Instead, appellant argues only that the officer’s request or directive that he remove his shoes was a custodial interrogation triggering his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966). Thus, the only question we need answer is whether there was a custodial interrogation. I conclude that the answer to that question is no. I reach this conclusion, not by focusing on whether or not appellant was in custody, but on whether or not appellant was being interrogated rather than searched when he was asked to remove his shoes. We have held that a search occurs whenever something not previously in plain view becomes exposed to an investigating officer. McDonald v. State, 354 Ark. 216, 119 S.W.3d 41 (2003); Norris v. State, 338 Ark. 397, 993 S.W.2d 918 (1999) (citing Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321 (1987)). The definition of interrogation can extend only to words or actions on the part of the police officers that they should have known were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291 (1980); Chase v. State, 334 Ark. 274, 973 S.W.2d 791 (1998). The officer’s direction for appellant to remove his shoes was intended to expose the contraband, placing it in plain view, to the officer. Therefore, I believe it is clear that at that point he was being searched rather than questioned.