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Article Excerpt
In United States v. Patane (1) and Missouri v. Seibert, (2) the Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the "fruits" of Miranda violations should be admitted into evidence. (3) That is, assuming a suspect's initial statement is inadmissible, should evidence obtained as a result of it be excluded as well?
In Patane, the defendant, a convicted felon, was arrested for violating a domestic restraining order. He interrupted the officer giving the Miranda warnings, saying he knew his rights. The officer then asked about a pistol, and the defendant told him where it was. The government conceded that this was a Miranda violation and that the statement could not be used. (4) The court also suppressed the pistol at Patane's trial for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and the government appealed. The Tenth Circuit affirmed the suppression order.
In Seibert, the arresting officer purposely did not give the Miranda warnings to a suspect in an arson/murder case. After the suspect made an incriminating statement, she was given the warnings, then made another incriminating statement. The officer admittedly used the first statement to elicit the second. (5) The first statement was not used at trial. The Missouri Supreme Court reversed the conviction, holding that the second statement should have been suppressed as well.
The dissenting Missouri justices in Seibert relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Oregon v. Elstad, which had held that suppression of the fruits of a Miranda violation was not appropriate. (6) In Elstad, a police officer arrested a teenage suspect at home and questioned him briefly in his living room, where the boy admitted his involvement in a burglary. The officer took him to the station, gave him the Miranda warnings for the first time, and obtained a detailed confession. Only this second confession was used...
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