People of Michigan v. Robin Lynn Root ( 2018 )

Order Michigan Supreme Court
Lansing, Michigan
May 11, 2018 Stephen J. Markman,
Chief Justice
Brian K. Zahra
Bridget M. McCormack
156658 David F. Viviano
Richard H. Bernstein
Kurtis T. Wilder
Elizabeth T. Clement,
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Justices
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v SC: 156658
COA: 331123
Kent CC: 15-004835-FC
ROBIN LYNN ROOT,
Defendant-Appellee.
__________________________________/
On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the August 31, 2017
judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not
persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court.
MARKMAN, C.J. (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent from this Court’s order denying leave to appeal. Instead, I
would grant leave to consider more fully the circumstances that are properly considered in
determining whether an initially noncustodial interrogation has been transformed in
midstream into a “custodial interrogation” for the purposes of Miranda v Arizona, 384 US
436 (1966). More specifically, I would grant to consider the relevance in the instant case
of the following particular factors cited by the Court of Appeals: (a) the allegedly “hostile,
accusatory tone employed when [one officer] entered the interrogation room and engaged
in an unveiling of all the incriminating evidence”; (b) the statement by one officer that the
DNA and other evidence against defendant was “compelling,” that he had “the prosecutor’s
office watching right now,” and that “if you don’t want to tell us [what happened], we’ve
got enough right here to go ahead and charge [you] with first-degree murder”; and (c) the
officers’ failure to apprise defendant that “she was free to leave at any time.” The costs of
Miranda are substantial where it is properly invoked—in this instance resulting in the
suppression of a confession to a cold-case murder—and I am not yet persuaded that the
lower court’s Miranda analysis was in all respects properly undertaken.
I, Larry S. Royster, Clerk of the Michigan Supreme Court, certify that the
foregoing is a true and complete copy of the order entered at the direction of the Court.
May 11, 2018
a0508
Clerk