Alvarado v. State

853 S.W.2d 17, 1993 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 70, 1993 WL 89307
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 31, 1993
Docket449-91, 450-91
StatusPublished
Cited by230 cases

This text of 853 S.W.2d 17 (Alvarado v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alvarado v. State, 853 S.W.2d 17, 1993 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 70, 1993 WL 89307 (Tex. 1993).

Opinions

OPINION ON APPELLANT’S PETITIONS FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

MEYERS, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and attempted voluntary manslaughter and sentenced by the court to 40 years imprisonment for each conviction, the terms to run concurrently. Appellant’s convictions were affirmed by the El Paso Court of Appeals. Alvarado v. State, 804 S.W.2d 669 (Tex.App.1991). We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

In his petitions for discretionary review, appellant alleges his Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments rights under the U.S. Constitution were violated. Appellant contends the State Judicial Police of Chihuahua, Mexico, were acting as agents for the El Paso police, when they obtained his confession without first advising him of his constitutional rights as set forth in Miranda v. Arizona,1 and therefore, federal and state exclusionary rules require his confession to be excluded from trial.2 No question of [19]*19whether the admission of the confession violates any of the provisions of article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure is presented in this appeal.3 The El Paso Court of Appeals ruled Miranda warnings were inapplicable to confessions obtained outside the U.S. and determined further that there was no agency relationship between the Mexican police and the El Paso police because the Mexican authorities had an “independent, albeit concurrent, basis for the arrest and production of the challenged confession, and that the deterrent effect intended by the various federal and state exclusionary rules would not be served by the suppression of this appellant’s confession.” 804 S.W.2d at 672. We granted appellant’s petitions for discretionary review to determine whether appellant’s confession to Mexican officials was admissible in the absence of Miranda warnings.

Appellant, a U.S. citizen, was involved in an altercation outside Chico’s Tacos on Alameda Street in the city of El Paso on April 26, 1989. After appellant shot and killed Ricardo Gomez and shot and wounded Augusto Medina, he fled from El Paso to Juarez, Mexico. Following police procedure, the El Paso police notified the state police authorities in Juarez, Mexico that appellant was a suspect for a murder committed in the U.S. and was believed to be residing in Juarez. Acting in part on the El Paso police tip, the Mexican State Judicial Police in Juarez apprehended appellant.

Following the Mexican Code of Criminal Procedure, the Mexican State Police obtained a written statement from appellant in which he confessed to his crimes in the United States. Mexican police turned appellant and his confession over to the Mexican Chief of Immigration for deportation. U.S. officials were unaware of appellant’s apprehension and confession until appellant was presented to U.S. Immigration officials in El Paso. Appellant was subsequently tried and convicted of both crimes based in part on the confession obtained by the Mexican State Police.

Appellant complains the admission of the confession violates his Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights because the Mexican police, acting as agents for the El Paso police, obtained a confession from him without first reading the Miranda warnings.4 This appeal presents two questions for us to resolve; first whether Miranda is [20]*20applicable to actions by foreign authorities outside the United States, and second whether the factual finding of no agency by the trial court and court of appeals was supported by sufficient evidence.

This is a case of first impression for this Court.5 We begin with the question of whether Miranda applies to activities of foreign officials outside the United States. Prior to obtaining the statement from Appellant, the Mexican police informed appellant of his rights under the Laws of Mexico. These rights would not be sufficient in themselves to meet the requirements of Miranda. According to the record, an accused in Mexico has the right to appoint any person, not necessarily an attorney, to assist or defend himself, but there is no right to appointed counsel during the interrogation process. An attorney will not be appointed until the court appearance. We note that appellant makes no claim nor do we find upon our own examination of the record that the incarceration procedure employed by the Mexican police violated any of the Laws of Mexico.

The Fifth Amendment provides in part that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself...” In order to effectuate the Fifth Amendment’s directive, the Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona, held:

The prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodial interrogation of the defendant unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the privilege against self-incrimination. By custodial interrogation, we mean questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way ... The defendant may waive effectuation of these rights, provided the waiver is made voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently.

384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1612, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The purpose for the exclusion of evidence for violations of Miranda is to prevent governmental coercion by substantially deterring future violations of the constitution. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 167 and 170, 107 S.Ct. 515, 521-22 and 523. Miranda warnings are not themselves constitutionally mandated, but rather they are procedural safeguards or prophylactic measures to prevent governmental coercion. Connecticut v. Barrett, 479 U.S. 523, 528, 107 S.Ct. 828, 831-32, 93 L.Ed.2d 920 (1987); Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 444, 94 S.Ct. 2357, 2363-64, 41 L.Ed.2d 182 (1974); Cooper v. Dupnik, 924 F.2d 1520 (9th 1991). “Indeed, the Fifth Amendment privilege is not concerned ‘with moral and psychological pressures to confess emanating from sources other than official coercion.’ ” Connelly, 479 U.S. at 170, 107 S.Ct. at 523 citing, Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 105 S.Ct. 1285, 84 L.Ed.2d 222 (1985) (emphasis added). “Miranda protects defendants against government coercion leading them to surrender rights protected by the Fifth Amendment; it goes no further than that.” Connelly, 479 U.S. at 170, 107 S.Ct. at 523.

Other jurisdictions which have considered the matter before us today have held, as a general rule, that Miranda warnings are not essential to the validity of a confession which has been obtained in a [21]*21foreign country by foreign officials.6 The rationale for such a rule was explained in Kilday v. United States, “the United States Constitution cannot compel such specific, affirmative action by foreign sovereigns, [such as requiring the Miranda

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jordan Michael Barton v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Quintlin Renard Jimerson v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
Shayne Daniel Afzal v. State
559 S.W.3d 204 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018)
Brendan Xavier Douglas v. State
489 S.W.3d 613 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2016)
Kivean Deshai Coffey v. State
435 S.W.3d 834 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014)
State v. Uyless Troy Bland
475 S.W.3d 327 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2013)
State of Texas v. Guerrero, Ex Parte Marcelino
400 S.W.3d 576 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2013)
Keith Wayne Henson v. State
440 S.W.3d 732 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2013)
State v. Portillo
314 S.W.3d 210 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Davidson v. State
249 S.W.3d 709 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Olivarez v. State
171 S.W.3d 283 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2005)
State v. Dixon
151 S.W.3d 271 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004)
State of Texas v. Richard Raymond Dixon
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004
Strong v. State
138 S.W.3d 546 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004)
Washington v. State
127 S.W.3d 197 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004)
Jaggers, Dennis J. v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003
Washington, Dana Wayne v. State
127 S.W.3d 197 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Perales v. State
117 S.W.3d 434 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Nonn v. State
117 S.W.3d 874 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Nonn, Jaime Charles
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2003

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
853 S.W.2d 17, 1993 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 70, 1993 WL 89307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alvarado-v-state-texcrimapp-1993.