David Proctor v. United States

404 F.2d 819

• Court: Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
• Decided: January 8, 1969
• Docket: 21569
• Status: Published

Opinions

J. SKELLY WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:

Appellant was convicted on three counts of robbery and sentenced to imprisonment for from two to six years on each count, sentences to be served concurrently. On appeal we consider, first, whether testimony as to a statement Proctor made at the police station was admissible under Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and second whether an in-court identification was proper under Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct.1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). We conclude that further facts are necessary before either point can be decided, and hence we remand the case to the District Court for further proceedings.

I

Two days after four men robbed a Safeway store, Proctor was arrested at home. He was read the Miranda warnings, and taken to the police station. There, in the course of filling out a “lineup sheet” on appellant, the arresting officer asked him whether he was employed. According to the officer, Proctor answered that he had not worked for three weeks, but that when he did work it was for his uncle, Alfred Brown.

At trial Proctor testified that he had been working for his uncle at the time the robbery was committed. On cross-examination he denied having told the officer that he had not worked for three weeks. The Government then brought on the arresting officer, who testified as described above.

Miranda teaches that suspects have a right to remain silent and a right to the assistance of counsel — appointed counsel if need be — when they are subject to in-custody interrogation. 384 U.S. at 467-473, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Statements obtained in derogation of these rights are not admissible into evidence.

At the outset, we hold that the questions which the arresting officer asked Proctor in the course of filling out the lineup sheet constituted in-custody interrogation. It may be that the officer asked these questions without any intent to elicit from Proctor a statement, damaging or otherwise, bearing on the crime with which he was charged. But the intent with which the questions were asked is not relevant here. Even innocent questions asked of a suspect in the inherently coercive atmosphere of the police station may create in him the impression that he must answer them. His answers then cannot be considered voluntary in the sense required by Miranda. Where such answers turn out to be damaging to the suspect, they cannot be used against him at trial, absent a valid waiver of the Miranda rights. As the Supreme Court has held in a related context:

“ * * * The arrested person may, of course, be ‘booked’ by the police. But he is not to be taken to police headquarters in order to carry out a process of inquiry that lends itself, even if not so designed, to eliciting damaging statements to support * * his guilt.”

Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449, 454, 77 S.Ct. 1356, 1359, 1 L.Ed.2d 1479 (1957). (Emphasis added.)

It is argued that the Walder-Tate doctrine ¹ permits the introduction, for impeachment purposes, of evidence obtained in violation of Miranda. According to that doctrine, when a defendant goes beyond a mere denial of complicity in the crime to introduce an affirmative defense, illegally obtained evidence may be introduced to impeach him on collateral matters relating to that defense.

Without considering whether the impeachment in this case was on a point sufficiently collateral to come within Walder and Tate, we hold that the Wald-er-Tate exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply to evidence obtained in violation of Miranda.

In Miranda the Court commanded the exclusion of all statements obtained in violation of its strictures:

“ * * * [N] o distinction may be drawn between inculpatory statements and statements alleged to be merely ‘exculpatory.’ If a statement made were in fact truly exculpatory it would, of course, never be used by the prosecution. In fact, statements merely intended tobe exculpatory by the defendant are often used to impeach his testimony at trial or to demonstrate untruths in the statement given under interrogation and thus to prove guilt by implication. These statements are incriminating in any meaningful sense of the word and may not be used without the full warnings and effective waiver required for any other statement. * * * ”

384 U.S. at 477, 86 S.Ct at 1629. (Emphasis added.) Thus the Court specifically rejected the use for impeachment purposes of statements intended to be exculpatory. We can discern no reason in logic or policy to treat differently statements, like Proctor’s here, presumably intended as neither inculpatory nor exculpatory. See Blair v. United States, 130 U.S.App.D.C. 322, 401 F.2d 387 (1968;.

There remains the question whether Proctor’s statement to the arresting officer was made subject to a valid waiver of his Miranda rights. The Court in Miranda held:

“ * * * [A] heavy burden rests on the government to demonstrate that the defendant knowingly and intelligently waived his privilege against self-incrimination and his right to retained or appointed counsel. * * *

“An express statement that the individual is willing to make a statement and does not want an attorney followed closely by a statement could constitute a waiver. But a valid waiver will not be presumed simply from the silence of the accused after warnings are given or simply from the fact that a confession was in fact eventually . obtained. * * *

“ ‘ * * * The record must show, or there must be an allegation and evidence which show, that an accused was offered counsel but intelligently and understandingly rejected the offer. Anything less is not waiver.’ ”

384 U.S. at 475, 86 S.Ct. at 1628. (Emphasis added.) The immediate availability of offered counsel at the place of interrogation is, of course, a primary consideration in determining the bona fides of the offer and the validity of the waiver.

The record now before us is inadequate to support a finding of valid waiver under Miranda. Since no Miranda objection was made at trial — we notice the Miranda issue on appeal as a “defect affecting substantial rights,” Rule 52(b), Fed.R.Crim.P. — the Government might not have brought forward all the evidence available to establish a waiver on Proctor’s part. Hence we now remand the case to the District Court for a hearing to determine whether Proctor made his statement to the arresting officer subject to a valid Miranda waiver.² If it is determined that he did not, he must have a new trial.

II

The Government’s case-in-chief against Proctor consisted of in-court identifications by two eyewitnesses to the robbery. One of these witnesses, Arkadie, made a preliminary identification of Proctor at a police station confrontation. In its memorandum opposing Proctor’s motion for a new trial, the Government apparently concedes that the confrontation took place in the robbery squad office, rather than under proper lineup conditions. There are further suggestions in the trial record itself that the confrontation might have been suggestive.³ Finally, the affidavit supporting the arrest warrant issued for Proctor states that the initial identification of him was by photograph. Because the record is unclear on these pre-trial identifications, the District Court should on remand determine whether the procedures used were unnecessarily suggestive, and if so whether they rendered inadmissible Arkadie’s in-court identification of Proctor under the standards laid down in Stovall v. Denno, supra; Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968); and decisions of this court developing those standards.

So ordered.

1 . Walder v. United States, 347 U.S. 62, 74 S.Ct. 354, 98 L.Ed. 503 (1954); Tate v. United States, 109 U.S.App.D.C. 13, 283 F.2d 377 (1960).

2 . It is suggested that to deny the prosecution the right to impeach an accused with his own statement is an inducement to perjury. Of course an accused may be impeached with his own statement provided that statement is obtained in compliance with prophylactic rules designed to protect the integrity of the fact-finding process and the rights of an accused without counsel in a police station. Compare Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 389-394, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968).

3 . On cross-examination of Arkadie, Proctor’s counsel elicited testimony to the effect that the other men present at the police station confrontation may have been substantially taller than Proctor. The cross-examination did not clarify whether the other men were in a lineup with Proctor, or were merely standing in the robbery squad office.