Court Opinion

ID: 9735412
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:14:10.628253+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:58.150950
License: Public Domain

RUIZ, Associate Judge,
concurring:
I agree with the majority that, having initially waived his Miranda rights and given a number of incriminating answers, appellant’s responses (“I’d rather not say”) to several questions did not convey with sufficient clarity to the police that he wished to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to stop the interrogation. I also agree that when the police reasonably are uncertain as to whether a suspect wishes a proper ongoing interrogation to stop, the rule in Davis should be extended so that the police do not have an obligation to clarify what the suspect means. See Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. 452, 459-62, 114 S.Ct. 2350, 129 L.Ed.2d 362 (1994) (no need to clarify ambiguous assertion of right to counsel).
I write separately to make clear what this case does not present and we consequently are not deciding. Appellant has not argued that he selectively invoked the right to remain silent (for example, as to EZ’s involvement in the crime),1 that the police failed to scrupulously honor that request, and that he was prejudiced as a result of the police’s repeated questioning about a discrete subject matter that he had clearly signaled was off limits. This is significant for several reasons.
First, a suspect may selectively invoke the Fifth Amendment right to silence, by agreeing to answer some questions but not others, and such a selective invocation must be “scrupulously honored” by the police just as in the case where a suspect invokes the right not to answer any question. See Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 103-04, 96 S.Ct. 321, 46 L.Ed.2d 313 (1975) (“Through the exercise of his option to terminate questioning he can control the time at which questioning occurs, the subjects discussed, and the duration of the interrogation.”); United States v. Soliz, 129 F.3d 499, 504 (9th Cir.1997) (where suspect charged with transporting illegal aliens agreed to be questioned only about his citizenship, such “statement constituted an unequivocal invocation of [his] right to remain silent on all issues, except his citizenship”). Of course, just as there might be inherent ambiguity about a suspect’s intent to bring an interrogation to an end once he has waived his Miranda rights and answered a number of incriminating questions — as in this case — there also could be ambiguity in a situation where a suspect is willing to answer some questions but not others. These are highly fact-bound issues that can be answered only in the context of a particular interrogation as there is no single talismanic formulation effective to invoke the Fifth Amendment. The question in all cases is whether “a reasonable officer in light of the circumstances would have understood only that the suspect might be invoking *1106the right....” Davis, 512 U.S. at 456, 114 S.Ct. 2350.
Second, there is reason to proceed cautiously in limiting any rule that is solicitous of the Fifth Amendment rights identified in Miranda. In refusing to extend the rule in Edwards that questioning must cease upon invocation of the right to counsel, see Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 484-85, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981), to situations where the assertion is ambiguous, Davis viewed such an extension as a “third layer of prophylaxis” to protect a right to counsel that the Court had established in Miranda “even though the Constitution does not provide for such assistance.” 512 U.S. at 462, 114 S.Ct. 2350; see Arizona v. Roberson, 486 U.S. 675, 688, 108 S.Ct. 2093, 100 L.Ed.2d 704 (1988) (Kennedy, J., dissenting), quoted in Davis, 512 U.S. at 459-60, 114 S.Ct. 2350 (“[T]he rule of Edwards is our rule, not a constitutional command; and it is our obligation to justify its expansion.”). But that view of Miranda’s protections was rejected by the Court’s more recent holding that “Miranda announced a Constitutional rule.... ” Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428, 444, 120 S.Ct. 2326, 147 L.Ed.2d 405 (2000). Therefore, our reliance on Davis to conclude that police also have no duty to stop questioning and clarify a suspect’s ambiguous statement to determine whether he chooses to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to silence, should be on as narrow a ground as possible to decide the case before us. This case does not present a case of a clear, but selective, invocation of the Fifth Amendment.
Third, the reason for the Davis rule may not apply with equal force where a selective invocation has clearly been made, and ignored by the police. In Davis, the Court explained that where there is ambiguity as to whether a suspect has invoked the right, the police have no duty to cease questioning because it would transform the Miranda safeguards into wholly “irrational obstacles to legitimate police investigative activity.” Davis, 512 U.S. at 460,114 S.Ct. 2350 (quoting Mosley, 423 U.S. at 102, 96 S.Ct. 321). But that the police have no duty to interrupt a legitimate investigation to clarify factually ambiguous situations does not negate that when a suspect has clearly invoked the right to remain silent as to selected subject, the police are bound to honor that selective invocation of rights. See 2 Wayne R. LaFave et al., Criminal PROCEDURE § 6.9(g), at 855-56 (3d ed. 2007) (“[I]f the defendant ‘clearly and unequivocally invoked his Miranda rights selectively,’ that is a sufficient invocation of Miranda with respect to the specific situation covered by the invocation.” (citing Arnold v. Runnels, 421 F.3d 859 (9th Cir.2005))). If the police do not honor such a selective invocation, the investigation ceases to be “legitimate,” which eliminates the leeway Davis allowed for “legitimate investigative activity.” Davis, 512 U.S. at 460, 114 S.Ct. 2350; cf. Stewart v. United States, 668 A.2d 857, 865 (D.C.1995) (“The Court in Davis was concerned with the predicament of police officers faced with ambiguous or equivocal statements. A police officer who understands a statement as a clear invocation of the right is in no position to plead such a quandary and should not benefit from a rule designed to avoid it.”). Where the obligation to honor a selective invocation of the Fifth Amendment is breached, the usual legal consequences follow: exclusion of evidence tainted by the violation and prohibition of comments or inferences from a suspect’s valid assertion of a constitutional right.
For these reasons I write separately to define specifically the issue that has been presented to us and that we decide today.

. I do not mean to suggest that on this record appellant could have successfully made such a claim, only to clarify the contours of the issue as presented to the court and decided in this appeal.