Court Opinion

ID: 9473480
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:30:53.059671+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:33.161330
License: Public Domain

MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
When one shakes and turns a kaleidoscope, one sees a very different arrange*404ment, even though one is looking at the same things in combination. Because of what I perceive to be a failure to take into account the consequences of one important, and as it turns out, controlling difference in alignment between the authorities cited in the majority opinion and the procedural posture of Shears’ case, I respectfully dissent.
The majority opinion painstakingly and convincingly amasses the authorities to demonstrate that if, in the present case the district judge, having carefully reviewed the totality of the circumstances, had decided that Shears’ confession had been voluntary, it would be our duty to affirm. However, each of the cases cited involved an appeal from a trial court decision in favor of the government’s claim that the confession was voluntary. A factor of substantial importance was, of course, the deference to be accorded the judgment of the district judge, who has the crucial opportunity to observe the way testimony is given. While that important factor assists a district judge in assessing credibility, it has an additional and here much more important function to play, namely, the evaluation of nuances of meaning. Words are often very imprecise building blocks with which to convey meaning, and a district judge present at utterance is inescapably in a far superior position to decide what really was meant.
That has undoubtedly played a major role in all the cases cited by the majority. E.g., United States v. Ballard, 586 F.2d 1060, 1062-64 (5th Cir.1978). Yet, in the case of Shears, that consideration is not given the importance which properly attaches to it. Shears’ case is one of the very few where an appeal was taken from the decision of the district judge, doing the difficult job assigned to him, that the confession should be suppressed. His decision should be upheld unless clearly erroneous. See United States v. Lewis, 528 F.2d 312 (4th Cir.1975).
A district judge must be allowed considerable scope in which to make the decisions which he reaches on what are quintessentially matters of fact.8 Here we deal with such a case, and I am not left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.9
If the district judge had drawn from the facts before him a contrary conclusion con*405cerning the existence of an implied promise, I would not have any quarrel with a decision that the defendant’s situation involved “a mere admonition to tell the truth,” or simple “government cajoling,” rather than the exaction of an involuntary confession. However, the district judge was justified in his determination that, given the actors in the vignette before him, the defendant reasonably could and, in fact, did conclude from the August 14,1984 discussion with agent Coront, that a bargain, which included leniency, had already been worked out and would be performed by the United States so long as Shears kept his mouth shut and cooperated.
The majority’s parsing of the alleged promise into three tidy component promises omits crucial testimony which supports the district court’s finding that Shears’ incriminating statement was induced by an implicit promise of leniency for cooperation. While Shears stated that he and Coront did not formally discuss an arranged'plea to a lesser sentence, the testimony indicates that Shears was led along. He testified that agent Coront “said he had some people that would like to speak to me, you know, he had some people that would like to speak to me to do me some good. You understand, if I cooperate, do me some good.” Explaining why Shears told his brother on August 14 to turn off his answering machine, Shears testified “what good would it do to let anyone know that I am arrested if I am supposed to be cooperating with the government ... ?” These representative snippets lend credence to the district judge’s observations (a) that Shears’ testimony, combined with Coront’s testimony and the totality of circumstances, made sense to him only “if there was some understanding that there was to be cooperation,” and (b) that the understanding was a predicate which misled Shears into making a statement on August 15.10 It must not be overlooked that, once the defendant asserts that a confession was coerced by a promise, the burden is upon the government to prove that the confession was, indeed, voluntary by a preponderance of the evidence. Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477, 489, 92 S.Ct. 619, 626, 30 L.Ed.2d 618 (1972); United States v. Johnson, 495 F.2d 378, 383 (4th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 860, 95 S.Ct. 111, 42 L.Ed.2d 95 (1974). Here, the district judge concluded that a promise was made and that the government’s evidence on voluntariness did not persuade him by a preponderance.
Finally, it merits mention that this case was one in a thousand in its nature. Normally, when the judge’s decision to suppress the confession is announced, trial of the case follows hard apace. As a consequence, a finding in favor of suppression is not often appealed by the government. I by no means suggest that the jurisdiction was lacking for such an appeal or that postponement of the trial since December 4, 1984 pending our decision was in any way incorrect. I simply sense injustice in denying to Shears the benefits of a district judge’s finding when the “not clearly erroneous rule” has worked so often in favor of the government against .other defendants.
Accordingly, in dissent, I express my conclusion that the district judge acted correctly in suppressing the confession and that we should affirm.

. The requirement for an independent appellate review of the record on the issue of voluntariness, (see Davis v. North Carolina, 384 U.S. 737, 741-42, 86 S.Ct. 1761, 1764-65, 16 L.Ed.2d 895 (1966); United States v. Robinson, 698 F.2d 448 (D.C.Cir.1983)), is necessitated by a concern for protecting the due process rights of defendants. That consideration does not operate, however, when the shoe is on the other foot.

. In Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 390-91, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 1788, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964) the Supreme Court observed:
Expanded concepts of fairness in obtaining confessions have been accompanied by a correspondingly greater complexity in determining whether an accused's will has been overborne — facts are frequently disputed, questions of credibility are often crucial, and inferences to be drawn from established facts are often determinative. The overall determination of the voluntariness of a confession has thus become an exceedingly sensitive task____ Where pure factual considerations are an important ingredient, which is true in the usual case, appellate review in this Court is, as a practical matter, an inadequate substitute for a full and reliable determination of the voluntariness issue in the trial court and the trial court’s determination, pro tanto, takes on an increasing finality. The procedures used in the trial court to arrive at its conclusions on the coercion issue progressively take on added significance as the actual measure of the protection afforded a defendant under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment against the use of involuntary confessions.
(Citations omitted). Cf. Anderson v. City of Bessemer, — U.S.-,-, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1512, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985):
If the district court’s account of the evidence is plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety, the court of appeals may not reverse it even though convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently. Where there are two permissible views of the evidence, the factfinder’s choice between them cannot be clearly erroneous____
This is so even when the district court’s findings do not rest on credibility determinations, but are based instead on physical or documentary evidence or inferences from other facts____
(Citations omitted).

. Much is made of Shears’ protestations that no "promise” had been made on August 14. Words, however, can be imbued with different meanings depending on context and on the level of sophistication of those who employ them. The district judge, of course, was free to apply tools of the trade, listen between spoken words, and conclude that Shears had been led to believe an understanding was reached on August 14, even if Shears himself did not consider the understanding to be a "promise."