Snider v. Seung Lee

584 F.3d 193, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 21965, 2009 WL 3233831
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedOctober 6, 2009
Docket08-1414
StatusPublished
Cited by51 cases

This text of 584 F.3d 193 (Snider v. Seung Lee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Snider v. Seung Lee, 584 F.3d 193, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 21965, 2009 WL 3233831 (4th Cir. 2009).

Opinions

Reversed and remanded by published opinion. Judge NIEMEYER wrote the opinion, in which Judge MICHAEL joined. Senior Judge STAMP wrote a separate opinion concurring in the judgment.

[195]*195OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

The district court denied FBI Agent Seung Lee qualified immunity in connection with his investigation and interrogation of Kenzi Snider for the murder of a fellow exchange student, Jamie Penich, in Seoul, South Korea. During Lee’s interrogations, Snider repeatedly confessed to the murder. When South Korea requested extradition, a hearing was conducted in the United States before a magistrate judge, who rejected Snider’s claim that her confessions were coerced and concluded that probable cause existed for her extradition. The Secretary of State then extradited Snider to South Korea for trial.

After Snider was acquitted by South Korean courts, she commenced this Bivens1 action against Lee and others for an array of constitutional violations, all of which the district court dismissed except for Snider’s Fourth Amendment claim for malicious prosecution based on her allegation of “wrongful extradition.”

Because Snider did not identify, in the circumstances of this case, a well-established constitutional violation, we conclude that Agent Lee is entitled to qualified immunity and reverse.

I

On March 17, 2001, Kenzi Snider and Jamie Penich, American exchange students in South Korea, returned together to their hotel rooms in the Itaewon region of Seoul, South Korea, after socializing in a local bar with fellow students and U.S. Army personnel. Because Penich was intoxicated and unable to walk on her own, Snider assisted Penich back to her hotel room.

The next morning, Penich was found naked and dead in her room. The evidence showed that she had been stomped to death, and the South Korean coroner concluded that she had died from suffocation. South Korean police questioned the group of students, including Snider, but did not make any arrests. The evidence at the time suggested that Penich was murdered by one or two men, but that evidence was inconclusive, and the investigation languished. Snider returned to the United States and enrolled in Marshall University in Hunting ton, West Virginia.

In the face of demands from Penich’s family and political pressure, agents of the FBI stationed in Korea, including Agent Seung Lee, joined the investigation. In reviewing the statements taken at the time of the murder, the agents became concerned about discrepancies between Snider’s statements and the physical layout of the hotel room where Penich had been found, as well as the statements given by other students in the group. Based on their suspicions that Snider was not being completely truthful about her actions that night, Agents Mark Mansfield and Lee, as well as FBI polygrapher Mark DiVittis, traveled to Huntington, West Virginia, in February 2002 to speak with Snider.

The agents contacted Snider and invited her to come to the hotel where they were staying to answer some questions. Snider agreed to meet with the agents, and she set the time for the meeting, to take place on February 4, 2002. When Snider arrived at the hotel with a friend, the agents requested that the friend remain downstairs while the agents spoke with Snider in Agent Lee’s hotel room, and Snider agreed.

[196]*196At this first interrogation session— which all parties described as very friendly — the agents made clear that they were investigating Penich’s murder and stated that extradition of Penieh’s killer to South Korea would be difficult. They also cited cases where murders of Korean citizens by foreign nationals resulted in light sentences. Snider felt sufficiently comfortable to share with the agents that she had not been sleeping well since the murder and that she had been having strange dreams, including one about being attacked by a train and a shark at the same time. Agent DiVittis suggested to Snider that dreams about trains indicate sexual conflict. After three hours, the session ended, and Snider agreed to return the next day at a time of her choosing and to bring with her a written summary of what she remembered from the night of Pe-nich’s murder.

The next day, February 5, 2002, Snider arrived again at Agent Lee’s room and brought homemade ice cream to share with the agents. In response to the agents’ inquiry about her relationship with Penich, Snider stated that the two were close friends and that Penich had even confided in Snider that she was anorexic. Snider then gave the agents the handwritten statement that she had prepared the night before. This statement was generally consistent with her earlier statement given at the time of the murder but contradicted some details. When asked about the discrepancies, Snider explained that her present statement was different from her previous statement because she “didn’t remember [the additional details] at the time.”

Agent DiVittis then confronted Snider, telling her that the investigation showed that she murdered Penich. In making this accusation, however, DiVittis allowed how Snider probably “didn’t mean to” and that perpetrators often “hide a memory and cover it up with another one” so that they can “handle it.” Snider became upset by the accusation and left the room. A moment later, however, she returned.

After she returned to the room, Snider asked the agents if she needed an attorney. The agents told her that a lawyer would just complicate things and that if she had an attorney, they would not be able to say that she had fully cooperated. Snider did not bring up the subject of an attorney again. The agents then suggested that Snider was repressing her true memories of the night. But before asking additional questions, they asked her, “Do you want to do this?” Snider indicated that she was willing to answer additional questions. When Agent DiVittis asked Snider about her emotions towards Penich, Snider stated that although she did not feel lustful toward other women, she had become excited when Penich undressed in front of her on the night of the murder. Agent DiVittis then asked Snider to recount step-by-step her actions on the night of the murder.

Snider, now sitting in a chair hunched over with her eyes closed, began to confess in detailed fashion how she murdered Pe-nich. She recounted a sexual encounter with Penich that resulted in Snider becoming angry, striking Penich, and then killing her by stomping on her head. Agents prompted Snider whenever she would pause by asking ‘What did you do then?” or “How did you move the body?” or “What set you off in a panic?” Several of the details provided by Snider corresponded to what the agents knew about the evidence at the crime scene. They noted that the bruising on Penich’s face was consistent with Snider’s confession that she slapped Penich; that the bruising on Penich’s back was consistent with Snider’s confession that she dropped Penich on the [197]*197bathtub; and that the way Penich’s clothes were arranged on the floor corresponded with Snider’s story that Penich had undressed seductively in front of her, removing both jeans and underwear at the same time. This statement contradicted Snider’s earlier statement that she had left Penich alone in the hotel room dressed only in her underclothes. Snider also now stated that she returned to her hotel room only once that night, contrary to her earlier statement but consistent with the testimony of her roommate.

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Bluebook (online)
584 F.3d 193, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 21965, 2009 WL 3233831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snider-v-seung-lee-ca4-2009.