Court Opinion

ID: 9489216
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:09:11.128943+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:24.099015
License: Public Domain

BRIGHT, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in that portion of the majority opinion concluding that Wheeler’s statements were inadmissible hearsay against Mendoza. I dissent from that portion of the opinion concluding that Wheeler’s statements were “voluntary” and thus admissible against her.
The question of voluntariness is a mixed question of law and fact. As the majority observes, a court should examine the circumstances surrounding the confession, including the conduct of law enforcement officials and the capacity of the suspect to resist pressure to confess. Op. at 1350 (citing United States v. Johnson, 47 F.3d 272, 275 (8th Cir.1995)). Although government agents may initiate conversations on cooperation without rendering a confession involuntary, custodial statements are presumed involuntary and the government must overcome the presumption by a preponderance of the evidence. Tippitt v. Lockhart, 859 F.2d 595, 597 (8th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1100, 109 S.Ct. 2452, 104 L.Ed.2d 1007 (1989).
The majority does not seem to question the underlying crucial findings of the district court that Wheeler was in a custodial situation and that an officer visibly carrying a gun got in her car and told her that she would be arrested immediately if she did not cooperate. This statement was made before Wheeler talked. The basic question is whether *1353these matters served to coerce Wheeler’s statements here in question given to the officers. The district court answered the question in the affirmative. The district judge who heard the live witnesses stands in a superior position to this court in finding that the conversation and other circumstances continued their coercive effect to the time when Wheeler spoke out.
The facts support the trial court’s findings of eoerciveness. Those findings are not clearly erroneous and lead to the ultimate conclusion of involuntariness of the confession. Cf. United States v. Kilgore, 58 F.3d 350, 353 (8th Cir.1995) (acknowledging that suspect’s will may be overborne and capacity for self-determination critically impaired where confession extracted by threats, violence, or direct or implied promises, but finding no such extraction where officers simply promised suspect he would not go to jail that same night and would retain the use of his personal vehicle).
Accordingly, I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which concludes Wheeler’s statements were voluntary and admissible against her. I believe the district court’s opinion should be affirmed in its entirety.