Court Opinion

ID: 9471683
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:38:33.443917+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:31.908973
License: Public Domain

CANBY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. While I agree fully with Judge Panner’s treatment of the issues of the motion for mistrial and the substitution of the alternate juror, I part company on the Miranda question. In my view, the district court’s finding that Crisco’s statement was not the result of custodial interrogation is clearly erroneous.
There can be little question that Crisco was in custody. The agents sought him out at his work place, informed him that they had a federal warrant for his arrest, and *1234told him that he was under arrest. Surely at that point a reasonable person would believe he was not free to leave. See United States v. Curtis, 568 F.2d 643, 646 (9th Cir.1978); United States v. Luther, 521 F.2d 408, 410 (9th Cir.1975).
The majority, like the district court, interprets the comment of Agent Clem as an explanation of the arrest in response to Crisco’s protestations that the agents had the wrong man. But the comment of Agent Clem went well beyond the kind of utterance “normally attendant to arrest and custody.” See Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1689, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980). Agent Clem said: “Hey, you met with me — for the purpose of seeing $60,000 that I was going to use to buy a kilo of cocaine.” Judged by the standard for applying Miranda, these words “are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect,” and the agents should have known it. Innis, 446 U.S. at 301, 100 S.Ct. at 1689. Agent Clem’s statement1 clearly invites an answer, either in the form of Crisco’s simple “I admit that,” or as a quarrel with one of the many elements contained in Agent Clem’s statement. For example, Crisco might have answered, consistently with his later defense, that he saw the money but it was not “to use to buy a kilo of cocaine.” Or he might similarly have denied that he met with Agent Clem “for the purpose of seeing $60,000.” The examples could be multiplied, for there were many facets to Agent Clem’s statement. The point is simply that the statement invites some kind of response2 from a suspect who had been arrested but not informed of his right to remain silent. The agent’s statement was not simply part of a discussion between two arresting officers, as in Innis and United States v. Thierman, 678 F.2d 1331 (9th Cir. 1982), but was directed to Crisco himself and dealt with the crimes at issue. It therefore amounted to interrogation, see United States v. Booth, 669 F.2d 1231, 1238-39 (9th Cir.1981), and the district court clearly erred in finding otherwise.
My reading of the trial transcript convinces me that the admission of Crisco’s response was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828,17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1976); United States v. Wilson, 690 F.2d 1267, 1274 (9th Cir.1982). I would therefore reverse and remand for a new trial.

. Agent Williams testified that Agent Clem’s statement was phrased as a question. The district court was entitled to resolve this inconsistency in favor of Agent Clem’s version. It makes no difference which version is chosen, for “the term ‘interrogation’ refers not only to express questioning, but also to any words or actions on the part of police (other than those normally attendant to arrest and custody) that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect.” Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1689, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980).

. For Miranda purposes, an “incriminating response” is “any response — whether inculpato-ry or exculpatory — that the prosecution may seek to introduce at trial.” Innis, 446 U.S. at 301 n. 5, 100 S.Ct. at 1690 n. 5 (emphasis original).