Court Opinion

ID: 9492701
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:47:48.726442+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:26.503295
License: Public Domain

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
While I agree with the majority’s opinion that there was probable cause to support the warrantless arrest and also with its conclusion that Section 5033 was violated, I disagree with significant parts of the discussion regarding the latter issue. Most important of all, however, I strongly disagree with the majority’s ultimate conclusion that the Section 5033 violation was harmless. Accordingly, I dissent.
I. The Section 5033 Violation.
While the majority correctly determines that Section 5033 was in fact violated, I have three concerns about the reasoning my colleagues use in arriving at their conclusion. The first relates to the purpose that consular notification serves. The second involves who must give the notice required by statute. The third is the majority’s description of the “three-part test.”
With respect to the first issue, although I agree with the majority that consular notification “must occur as soon as reasonably possible ...,” and that the arresting officer should “delay interrogation of the juvenile for a reasonable time to allow consular notification and response,” I disagree with the statement that “consular notification serves merely as a mechanism for reaching the parents.” If the purpose of consular notification were so limited, then requiring such notification prior to interrogation would be of little consequence. Even if the consular officials were notified immediately, they would ordinarily be unable to advise the juvenile’s parents in time to, in the words of the majority, “allow the parents to become involved at a meaningful point in the process.” Arrangements must be made for entry into the U.S., which takes some time. In this case, for example, more than 24 hours elapsed before Jane Doe’s parents were admitted to the country. In other cases, the juvenile’s parents may be even farther away, or the process of arranging their entry may, for any number of reasons, consume considerably more time.
One of the primary purposes of consular notification is to permit diplomatic officials to act as proxies for parents who are not in the country and thus cannot “become involved at a meaningful point in the pro*1007cess.” In such cases, children will be deprived of parental involvement at what is often a critical stage unless consular representatives participate in their stead. More important, we have already implicitly recognized that consular involvement is in fact one of the purposes of the consular notification requirement. In Doe II, we wrote: “[i]f the prosecution resulted from the confession and the confession came in part as a result of Doe’s isolation from family, friends, representatives of his country or an attorney, then the statutory violations must be said to have prejudiced Doe.” United States v. Doe, 862 F.2d 776, 781 (9th Cir.1988) (Doe II) (emphasis added). Simply put, the juveniles in question have the right to the presence of their parents, or of those who serve in loco parentis-namely, consular representatives-at the time of the interrogation.
Moreover, the approach the majority suggests does not fit within the larger context of international obligations and practices. If an American were arrested in Iran or Turkey, we would insist that an American consular officer be allowed to come to the prison and advise that person of his rights at the earliest possible time.1 In fact, American consular officers assert their rights to advise Americans frequently and aggressively.2 Viewing our Doe II precedent as I have suggested would allow consular officials to converse with youthful arrestees at “a meaningful point in the process”-before they are persuaded to forego their rights, and, perhaps, to confess to offenses they did not commit.
Second, in considering whether or not Section 5033 was violated, the majority fails to address directly the question of responsibility: specifically, who, according to the statute and Ninth Circuit case law, must contact either the parents or the consul. Section 5033 provides that “[t]he arresting officer shall also notify the parents, guardian, or custodian of the rights of the juvenile and of the nature of the alleged offense.” 18 U.S.C.A. § 5033 (emphasis added); see also United States v. Doe, 170 F.3d 1162, 1167 (9th Cir.1999) (Doe III) (holding that the arresting official, not a subsequent official, is responsible for notification). In this case, however, delegation upon delegation occurred, thereby unnecessarily compounding the delay and virtually ensuring that, as happened here, any interrogation would be over by the time the consulate was in fact contacted. Thus, Section 5033 was violated not just by the unnecessary delay in contacting the consulate, but also by the unauthorized delegation of duty which contributed to that delay.
Third, although the proposed opinion subsequently applies the proper test for evaluating violations of Section 5033, it clearly errs, and errs significantly, in describing that test. The opinion states that the purpose of the test is to determine (whether juveniles have been deprived “of their due process rights” — that is, of their constitutional rights). Majority Op. at p. 1003-04. That, however, is a more narrow purpose than the law actually entails. The ultimate question is not whether a statutory violation constitutes a constitutional vio*1008lation, but whether a statutory violation warrants redress. If the statutory violation constitutes a violation of the juvenile’s due process rights, we have our answer and we can stop our inquiry. However, if no due process violation has occurred, we must proceed further with the inquiry and determine whether the statutory violation was harmless. See Doe II, 862 F.2d at 779, 780-81. In fact, if the ultimate question were whether a due process violation occurred, there would be no third prong to the test.3 Thus, the majority’s description of the process we follow in examining claims of Section 5033 violations is inaccurate and incomplete, and introduces unnecessary confusion into our previously unambiguous description of the proper test. See Doe II, 862 F.2d at 779.
II. The Harmlessness of the Section 5033 Violations
Finally, I disagree with the majority’s conclusion as to the harmlessness of the Section 5033 violations. After erroneously stating that the inquiry involves determining whether the juvenile was deprived of her due process rights, the majority proceeds to ignore its own statement and accurately quotes the controlling case law declaring that Section 5033 violations require reversal unless the violation in question is “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” Doe II, 862 F.2d at 780-81. This is a particularly stringent standard, and one that, notwithstanding the majority’s contrary assertion, is not met in the present case.
In this case, as the majority holds, Doe was arrested at the moment she was handcuffed to the bench. This sixteen year-old girl remained so constrained for approximately four hours before her interrogation began, and she was deprived of both parental and consular involvement, not only during that four hour pre-interrogation period, but during the course of the interrogation itself. She denied her guilt repeatedly under questioning, until finally she broke down and tearfully confessed.
Nevertheless, the majority concludes that the Section 5033 violation did not offend due process, and that the error was harmless. Although I agree that the violation in question did not offend due process, the error was certainly not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. As the majority recognizes, when it ultimately applies the proper test, “[i]f the statutory violations did not rise to the level of constitutional violations but nonetheless prejudiced” the juvenile, the panel must reverse or remand (whichever in its discretion it deems to be appropriate) in order to ensure that the juvenile’s rights are safeguarded. Doe II, 862 F.2d at 780-81.
Simply put, the prejudice in the case before us is this: the failure to notify the consulate in a timely manner prior to interrogation “needlessly isolated this juvenile in a strange environment and deprived [her] of support and counsel during the pre-arraignment period.” Doe II, 862 F.2d at 781. As a result, after repeatedly denying her culpability, Doe ultimately made statements that were highly prejudicial, without having had an opportunity to obtain advice from anyone she trusted.4 *1009That opportunity is precisely what the statute is designed to ensure.5 Moreover, the fact that the Consul was able to persuade Doe to tell him how to contact her parents bolsters the argument that earlier contact with the consulate would have made her feel less isolated, and would have enabled her to decide whether to make a knowing and voluntary waiver of her rights. As a result, I cannot agree that the violation in question was harmless. Accordingly, I dissent.

 Under Article 36(l)(c) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, consular officers have the right to visit their nationals in custody, "to converse and correspond with [them] and to arrange for [their] legal representation.”

. In Doe II, we wrote that: “Our inquiry ... proceeds in three stages. First, we address whether the government violated the requirements of the Juvenile Delinquency Act. If it did, we reach the second question: whether the government's conduct was so egregious as to deprive Doe of his right to due process of law. If it was not, we reach the third question: was the violation harmless to the juvenile beyond a reasonable doubt?” Doe II, 862 F.2d at 779. With respect to the third stage, we went on to note that "[i]f the statutory violations did not rise to the level of constitu-lional violations but nonetheless prejudiced Doe, we have discretion to reverse or order more limited remedies so as to ensure that Doe’s rights are safeguarded and the will of Congress is not thwarted.” Id. at 780-81.

. In this case, Doe was in a foreign country, surrounded by people who spoke a language she did not understand, and in the maw of a judicial system very different from her own. She was not offered the opportunity to make a phone call either prior to or during the interrogation. During the interrogation itself, *1009the juvenile repeatedly denied participating in the criminal conduct. Nevertheless, the agents continued to press her, telling her that she would likely go to jail for a long time. Finally, after being questioned at length by the agent, Doe broke down and wept. She then told the agents that she had acted unlawfully. This picture is very different from the one drawn both in the district court and in the majority's opinion.

. For example, in United States v. Indian Boy X, 565 F.2d 585, 591 (9th Cir.1977), we based our decision rejecting a timely arraignment challenge under § 5033 on the officers’ "scrupulously fair” explanation of the boy’s rights to the parents, and the parents’ presence at the time the juvenile waived his Miranda rights.