Court Opinion

ID: 9430794
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:30:36.47068+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:18.079343
License: Public Domain

Justice Marshall,
with whom Justice Brennan joins, dissenting.
The Court asserts there is “no doubt” that respondent Spring’s decision to waive his Fifth Amendment privilege *578was voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently made. Ante, at 573 and 574. I agree, however, with the Colorado Supreme Court that a significant doubt exists in the circumstances of this case and thus the State has failed to carry the “heavy burden” recognized in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436, 475 (1966), for establishing the constitutional validity of Spring’s alleged waiver.
Consistent with our prior decisions, the Court acknowledges that a suspect’s waiver of fundamental constitutional rights, such as Miranda’s protections against self-incrimination during a custodial interrogation, must be examined in light of the “‘“totality of the circumstances.””’ Ante, at 573, quoting Moran v. Burbine, 475 U. S. 412, 421 (1986), in turn quoting Fare v. Michael C., 442 U. S. 707, 725 (1979); see also id., at 724-725; North Carolina v. Butler, 441 U. S. 369, 374-375 (1979); Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S. 458, 464 (1938). Nonetheless, the Court proceeds to hold that the specific crimes and topics of investigation known to the interrogating officers before questioning begins are “not relevant” to, and in this case “could not affect,” the validity of the suspect’s decision to waive his Fifth Amendment privilege. Ante, at 577. It seems to me self-evident that a suspect’s decision to waive this privilege will necessarily be influenced by his awareness of the scope and seriousness of the matters under investigation.
To attempt to minimize the relevance of such information by saying that it “could affect only the wisdom of” the suspect’s waiver, as opposed to the validity of that waiver, ventures an inapposite distinction. Ibid. Wisdom and validity in this context are overlapping concepts, as circumstances relevant to assessing the validity of a waiver may also be highly relevant to its wisdom in any given context. Indeed, the admittedly “critical” piece of advice the Court recognizes today — that the suspect be informed that whatever he says may be used as evidence against him — is certainly relevant to the wisdom of any suspect’s decision to submit to custodial interrogation without first consulting his lawyer. Ante, at *579574. The Court offers no principled basis for concluding that this is a relevant factor for determining the validity of a waiver but that, under what it calls a totality of the circumstances analysis, a suspect’s knowledge of the specific crimes and other topics previously identified for questioning can never be. -
The Court quotes Moran v. Burbine, supra, at 422, as holding that “a valid waiver does not require that an individual be informed of all information ‘useful’ in making his decision or all information that ‘might . . . affec[t] his decision to confess.’” Ante, at 576 (emphasis added). Noticeably similar is the Court’s holding today: “[A] suspect’s awareness of all the possible subjects of questioning in advance of interrogation is not relevant to determining” the validity of his waiver. Ante, at 577 (emphasis added). This careful phraseology avoids the important question whether the lack of any indication of the identified subjects for questioning is relevant to determining the validity of the suspect’s waiver.
I would include among the relevant factors for consideration whether before waiving his Fifth Amendment rights the suspect was aware, either through the circumstances surrounding his arrest or through a specific advisement from the arresting or interrogating officers, of the crime or crimes he was suspected of committing and about which they intended to ask questions. To hold that such knowledge is relevant would not undermine the “‘virtue of informing police and prosecutors with specificity’ as to how a pretrial questioning of a suspect must be conducted,” ante, at 577, n. 9 (quoting Fare v. Michael C., supra, at 718), nor would it interfere with the use of legitimate interrogation techniques. Indeed, requiring the officers to articulate at a minimum the crime or crimes for which the suspect has been arrested could contribute significantly toward ensuring that the arrest was in fact lawful and the suspect’s statement not compelled because of an error at this stage alone, a problem we addressed in Brown v. Illinois, 422 U. S. 590, 601 (1975), under the *580Fourth Amendment on the assumption that the defendant’s waiver of his Fifth Amendment rights in that case had been voluntary. See also Dunaway v. New York, 442 U. S. 200, 217 (1979) (voluntary waiver of Miranda warnings is a threshold requirement for Fourth Amendment analysis).
The interrogation tactics utilized in this case demonstrate the relevance of the information Spring did not receive. The agents evidently hoped to obtain from Spring a valid confession to the federal firearms charge for which he was arrested and then parlay this admission into an additional confession of first-degree murder. Spring could not have expected questions about the latter, separate offense when he agreed to waive his rights, as it occurred in a different State and was a violation of state law outside the normal investigative focus of federal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents.
“Interrogators describe the point of the first admission as the ‘breakthrough’ and the ‘beachhead,’ R. Royal & S. Schutt, The Gentle Art of Interviewing and Interrogation: A Professional Manual and Guide 143 (1976), which once obtained will give them enormous ‘tactical advantages,’ F. Inbau & J. Reid, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions 82 (2d ed. 1967).” Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U. S. 298, 328 (1985) (Brennan, J., dissenting). The coercive aspects of the psychological ploy intended in this case, when combined with an element of surprise which may far too easily rise to a level of deception,1 cannot be justified in light of Miranda’s strict *581requirements that the suspect’s waiver and confession be voluntary, knowing, and intelligent. 384 U. S., at 445-458, 475-476. If a suspect has signed a waiver form with the intention of making a statement regarding a specifically alleged crime, the Court today would hold this waiver valid with respect to questioning about any other crime, regardless of its relation to the charges the suspect believes he will be asked to address. Yet once this waiver is given and the intended statement made, the protections afforded by Miranda against the “inherently compelling pressures” of the custodial interrogation, id., at 467, have effectively dissipated. Additional questioning about entirely separate and more serious suspicions of criminal activity can take unfair advantage of the suspect’s psychological state, as the unexpected questions cause the compulsive pressures suddenly to reappear. Given this technique of interrogation, a suspect’s understanding of the topics planned for questioning is, therefore, at the very least “relevant” to assessing whether his decision to talk to the officers was voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently made.
Not only is the suspect’s awareness of the suspected criminal conduct relevant, its absence may be determinative in a given case. The State’s burden of proving that a suspect’s waiver was voluntary, knowing, and intelligent is a “heavy” one. Miranda, 384 U. S., at 475. We are to “‘indulge every reasonable presumption against waiver’ of fundamental constitutional rights” and we shall “‘not presume acquiescence in the loss of fundamental rights.’” Johnson, *582304 U. S., at 464 (citations omitted); see Brewer v. Williams, 430 U. S. 387, 404 (1977). It is reasonable to conclude that, had Spring known of the federal agents’ intent to ask questions about a murder unrelated to the offense for which he was arrested, he would not have consented to interrogation without first consulting his attorney. In this case, I would therefore accept the determination of the Colorado Supreme Court that Spring did not voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waive his Fifth Amendment rights. 713 P. 2d 865, 873-874 (1985).2
I dissent.

 The Court rejects, for now, the notion that “mere silence” by law enforcement officials may deprive the suspect of information so relevant to his decision to waive his Miranda rights as to constitute deception, though it does acknowledge that circumstances can arise in which an affirmative misrepresentation by the officers will invalidate the suspect’s waiver. Ante, at 576, and n. 8. In Moran v. Burbine, 475 U. S. 412, 453 (1986), I joined Justice Stevens’ dissenting opinion, which stated that “there can be no constitutional distinction . . . between a deceptive misstatement and the concealment by the police of the critical fact that an attorney retained by the accused or his family has offered assistance I would hold the officers’ failure in the present case to inform Spring of their intent to ques*581tion him about the Colorado murder equally critical. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), places an especially heavy burden on the State to show that a suspect waived his privilege against self-incrimination: “[A]ny evidence that the accused was threatened, tricked, or cajoled into a waiver will, of course, show that the defendant did not voluntarily waive his privilege.” Id., at 476 (emphasis added). I would hold that the interrogating officers’ preconceived plan in this case to obtain a waiver from Spring with reference to a particular federal offense and then ask about a separate, unrelated state offense precludes the State from carrying that heavy burden.

 Nothing in the Court’s decision today precludes the courts of Colorado from interpreting that State’s Constitution as independently recognizing a suspect’s knowledge of the intended scope of interrogation as a relevant factor for determining whether he validly waived his right against self-incrimination under state law. See Colo. Const., Art. II, § 18.