Court Opinion

ID: 9468952
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:27:53.491565+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:07.898079
License: Public Domain

HENLEY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority that Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981), requires reversal. The crucial issue appears to be the admissibility of the statements made by Stumes during the final miles of the trip from Green Bay to Sioux Falls. Although I agree with the majority that Stumes, while riding in a police car for five hundred or six hundred miles 1 with three law enforcement officers, was in a police-dominated atmosphere, there is no indication that he was coerced into talking about the murder. On the contrary, there is every indication that he understood his rights and voluntarily chose to discuss the matter.
Edwards does not bar further interrogation if “the accused himself initiates further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police.” 451 U.S. at 485, 101 S.Ct. at 1885. The preliminary question, then, is whether Stumes’ statement about taking a human life constitutes an initiation of further communication. I think that it does. The trip from Green Bay to Sioux Falls began sometime about 9:00 a.m. It appears from the evidence that the travellers stopped for lunch about 2:00 p.m. at some point approximately two hundred fifty miles from Green Bay. Stumes made his statement about taking a human life some sixty to ninety miles outside of Sioux Falls, where they arrived at about 6:45 p.m. At the outset of the trip, Stumes was given Miranda warnings and questioned for only a few minutes. While there Is some indication that Stumes was questioned “intermittently” during the trip, Stumes testified that there was no interrogation right after lunch. He said only that there was general conversation up to the time he made the statement in question and indeed it appears that there had been no conversation at all for perhaps ten or fifteen minutes before Stumes spoke. Officer Green recalled nothing Stumes had said after the lunch stop and prior to the confession other than voicing a complaint about his back hurting. According to Officer Green “we all were getting a little tired riding by that time.” Thus, it is clear that no memorable mention of the crime occurred from the time of the stop for lunch until Stumes admittedly initiated a conversation. Stumes recounted the beginning of the conversation by testifying “I had a little conflict with my emotions and I made a *1159statement that I couldn’t understand why anybody would want to kill Joyce and that the taking of a human life is so useless.” 511 F.Supp. at 1316.
In all the circumstances of the case, including the time factors,2 it seems clear, even assuming arguendo that some of the earlier questioning may have been suspect, that Stumes’ statement was not a result of any interrogation but was, on the contrary, a voluntary initiation of further communication.
Once it is determined that Stumes initiated further communication, the next question is whether he was subjected to subsequent interrogation, and, if so, whether he knowingly and intelligently waived his right to counsel and his right to silence. Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. at 486 n.9, 101 S.Ct. at 1885 n.9. Assuming that telling Stumes he would feel better if he “got it off his chest” amounted to interrogation, the evidence indicates, as the district court found, that Stumes fully understood his rights and voluntarily waived them.3 He had received Miranda warnings several times and his attorney had advised him by telephone not to talk to anyone. After Stumes’ “little conflict with his emotions” prompted him to speak, he said that he had been wanting to tell someone about the incident. And, in response to Green’s warning that his attorney would advise him not to make a statement, Stumes said that he would talk to anyone he wanted to. This is clearly distinguishable from Edwards, wherein the defendant stated that he did not want to talk to anybody but was told that he “had to.” After all, as Justice Powell observes in his concurring opinion in Edwards, “[i]t is not unusual for a person in custody who previously has expressed an unwillingness to talk or a desire to have a lawyer, to change his mind and even welcome an opportunity to talk.” 451 U.S. at 490, 101 S.Ct. at 1888.
Having concluded that Stumes’ statements during the trip are admissible, I have little difficulty concerning the other two statements in question. Stumes clearly and voluntarily initiated the meeting with Skadsen in Sioux Falls during which he asked Skadsen to “tell them” that he was not a vicious killer. And finally, I agree with the district court that to the extent the admission of Stumes’ statement made the afternoon before the trip was error, it was harmless in view of the seriousness of his later statements.
Although the district court did not have the benefit of the Edwards opinion, I believe that the result reached by the district court is not inconsistent with Edwards and is correct. I would therefore affirm the denial of the petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

. There is record support for the finding of the district court and the majority here that it is six hundred miles from Green Bay to Sioux Falls. However, Officer Skadsen testified in 1977 that the distance is “around five hundred miles." Current highway maps reflect that the distance by interstate highway is about five hundred miles. For at least some portion of the journey no interstate highway was being used; indeed the record does not reflect whether an interstate highway was in existence in 1973 when the journey was made.

. Testimony on behalf of the appellee reflects that Stumes’ statement was made “around” Jackson, Minnesota, some ninety miles from Sioux Falls. Stumes placed the conversation between Jackson and Worthington, which from maps appears to be about sixty miles from Sioux Falls. Thus, the conversation probably occurred no more than about one and one-half hours prior to the arrival time at Sioux Falls, 6:45 p.m., and more than three hours after the lunch stop at 2:00 p.m.

. Stumes was no novice in dealing with courts, police officers and attorneys. He had been involved in some civil proceedings, in various misdemeanors and in two felony charges against him.