People v. Wood

Justice COATS,

concurring in part and dissenting in part.

I respectfully dissent from that portion of the court’s judgment suppressing certain of the defendant’s statements as a violation of his Miranda rights.¹ Although it may have little or no actual effect in this case, I fear the majority’s Miranda holding is likely to have a substantial and deleterious impact on police practices generally and the use of volunteered statements as evidence in this jurisdiction. Because I believe the majority also misconstrues and misapplies controlling United States Supreme Court precedent in arriving at its holding, I write separately to briefly register my disagreement.

As the majority acknowledges, statements made by an accused while in custody, in the absence of an effective waiver of his Miranda rights, violate the dictates of Miranda only if they were the product of police interrogation. Maj. op. at 749. While interrogation is not limited to actual questioning, but also includes any words or actions the police should know are likely to elicit an incriminating response, Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 300-01, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980), it is not so broad a concept as to encompass the entire time-frame of a custodial interview. Clearly, not every statement made by a defendant while he is in custody and in the presence of an officer for an interview must be treated as the product of custodial interrogation. See State v. Fekete, 120 N.M. 290, 901 P.2d 708, 718 (1995) (“Volunteered statements come within one of two categories: statements which the police did not attempt to elicit, and statements made during custodial interrogation that may be in response to police questioning but are unresponsive to the questions asked.”).

More to the point of this case, however, determining whether a suspect is willing to be interviewed does not itself constitute interrogation. Merely notifying a defendant of the reasons for his arrest or the charges against him does not constitute interrogation, see People v. Rivas, 13 P.3d 315 (Colo.2000); see also United States v. Benton, 996 F.2d 642 (3d Cir.1993), nor does merely advising him of his Miranda rights, see People v. Smith, 173 Colo. 10, 475 P.2d 627 (1970); Commonwealth v. Baez, 554 Pa. 66, 720 A.2d 711 (1998). And police are obviously not required to close their ears to information volunteered to them while they are properly attempting to comply with the Miranda guidelines. Smith, 173 Colo. at 14, 475 P.2d at 628. While expressly asking a defendant whether he would like to give his side of the story may well amount to interrogation, State v. Hebert, 277 Kan. 61, 82 P.3d 470, 482 (2004) (finding direct inquiry whether defendant “[wjould [] like the opportunity to tell [his] side of the story,” prior to Miranda warnings, to be interrogation), surely the same cannot be said of merely explaining to a defendant, in the course of administering Miranda warnings, that the purpose of the interview will be to give him a chance to tell his side of the story.

The majority defers to the trial court’s finding, which it considers to be, in effect, a determination that police efforts at relationship building, including characterizing the upcoming interview as a chance for the defendant to tell his side of the story, were intended to elicit information from the defendant. Maj. op. at 751. I do not believe it is at all clear, however, that the trial court suggested the police were attempting to elicit a statement from the defendant before he had waived his Miranda rights, and I do not believe the record would support such a suggestion if it had. In any event, whether police actions were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response is a question of law, subject to plenary or de novo review by a reviewing court. People v. Gonzales, 987 P.2d 239, 242 (Colo.1999); see also People v. Matheny, 46 P.3d 453, 461-62 (Colo.2002) (noting this Court’s independent review of mixed questions of law and fact in variety of related contexts). As a matter of law, the majority should have held that merely informing a defendant that he will be interviewed to get his side of the story while attempting to administer Miranda warnings is insufficient to render every statement he volunteers thereafter the product of custodial interrogation.

In Miranda, the Supreme Court carefully made the choice to guard against the inherently coercive atmosphere of the station-house interrogation by requiring a voluntary and intelligent waiver of the defendant’s rights to remain silent and to have counsel present. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444-45, 86 S.Ct. 1602. It therefore applied its prophylactic warning requirement and exclusionary remedy only to statements made while in custody and as a response to police interrogation. Id. at 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602. In striking this balance, it squarely rejected the notion that inculpatory statements from the defendant’s own mouth are in some way unworthy evidence or that using such statements to establish his guilt is an undesirable way of solving crimes. Id. at 481, 86 S.Ct. 1602.

The scope of prophylactic rules designed to modify executive branch behavior is peculiarly within the province of the court creating them. Unlike the majority, I would not expand the exclusionary remedy of Miranda beyond its original purpose, as determined by the United States Supreme Court. I therefore respectfully dissent from this portion of the majority’s opinion.

I am authorized to state Justice EID joins in this concurrence and dissent.

1 . Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966).