United States v. Long

325 F. Supp. 583, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14057
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedMarch 24, 1971
DocketNo. 23966-1
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 325 F. Supp. 583 (United States v. Long) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Long, 325 F. Supp. 583, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14057 (W.D. Mo. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHN W. OLIVER, District Judge.

I.

This case pends on defendant’s motion to suppress evidence derived from handwriting exemplars taken from the defendant on July 10, 1969, while he was in State custody and before any warning of any sort was given him by any law enforcement officer. Defendant alleges that the hand-writing samples in question were obtained and seized in a manner inconsistent with and in violation of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.

Count I of the indictment alleges that the defendant forged the signature of one Melvin T. Harris on a government check in violation of Section 495, Title 18, United States Code. It is anticipated that the Government may adduce evidence by one of its hand-writing experts that the person from whom the exemplars were taken is the same person as the person who signed the payee’s name to the check.

In order to place the narrow question presented in precise focus, the Government has stated that it will seek leave to dismiss Count II of the indictment. That motion will be granted.

The parties have also cooperated in an exemplary manner by entering into a stipulation which places the question presented in proper focus, uncomplicated by any collateral questions.

It is agreed that the federal authorities learned that the defendant was wanted on an unrelated state charge (JJ 3 of Stipulation). It is agreed that at that time the Government did not in fact have “probable cause to believe that defendant had endorsed the subject check” (jf 5 of the Stipulation).

[584]*584It was under these circumstances that the Treasury Agent accompanied the police officers of Mexico, Missouri, who arrested and placed the defendant in custody on the pending state charge. And it is stipulated that it was only after the defendant was “in custody [that] the defendant executed hand-writing exemplars for the Treasury Agent” ([[4 of the Stipulation).

It is further agreed that the defendant was not “advised of his Miranda rights” until after the Treasury Agent had obtained the hand-writing exemplars from him (iff 4 of the Stipulation). When once advised of his rights, the defendant “refused to talk and demanded that an attorney be provided” but “no attorney was provided” Off 4 of the Stipulation). If the assumption is made that a Miranda warning is sufficient to advise a defendant of his Fourth Amendment rights, as they may relate to handwriting exemplars, it is difficult not to infer that the defendant, under the stipulated circumstances of this case, would not have also refused to give the Treasury Agent the hand-writing exemplars.

It is also agreed that at no time before the exemplars were taken was the defendant ever “warned that he had a right to refuse to provide hand-writing exemplars” nor was “the defendant advised that he possessed any rights under the Fourth Amendment” (iff 5 of the Stipulation).

II.

The narrow question presented is whether the hand-writing exemplars obtained under the foregoing stipulated circumstances may be introduced in evidence and used by the Government’s expert witness to support expert testimony that the defendant forged the payee’s signature. The defendant’s motion to suppress is based on alleged violation of either the Fourth, Fifth, or Sixth Amendments.

The Government relies heavily upon Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263, 87 S.Ct. 1951, 18 L.Ed.2d 1178 (1967). It is clear that that case involved only a claim that the hand-writing exemplars were obtained in violation of the petitioner’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights. It is not clear from the report of that case whether the defendant had been given a Miranda warning before the exemplars were taken. Nor can it be overlooked that in Gilbert the Court explicitly stated that “no claim is made that the content of the exemplars was testimonial or communicative matter.” Gilbert can not properly be considered as authority for denying defendant’s Fourth Amendment claim.

Gilbert relied upon Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757 at 763-764, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966) and United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218 at 222-223, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967). Wade, a line-up case, merely quoted the same distinctions made in Schmerber between “communications” and “real or physical evidence.” It is true that Schmerber, in speaking of the Fifth Amendment, did say that such Amendment “offers no protection against compulsion to submit to finger printing, photographing, or measurements, to write or speak for identification, to appear in court, to stand, to assume a stance, to walk, or make a particular gesture.” But Schmerber also said by way of dictum that to compel a person to submit to testing by way of a lie detector test was “to evoke the spirit and history of the Fifth Amendment” (384 U.S. at 764, 86 S.Ct. at 1832).

Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 88 S.Ct. 1788, 20 L.Ed.2d 797 (1968), is a Fourth, rather than a Fifth or Sixth Amendment, case. Bumper makes clear that “when a prosecutor seeks to rely upon consent to justify the lawfulness of a search, he has the burden of proving that the consent was, in fact, freely and voluntarily given.” And that case pointed out that “this burden can not be discharged by showing no more than acquiescence to a claim of lawful authority” (391 U.S. at 548-549, 88 S.Ct. at 1792).

Under the stipulated facts, it cannot fairly be said that at best, the defendant [585]*585did any more than merely acquiesce in the Treasury Agent’s claim that he could lawfully demand exemplars from the defendant when he was being held in custody by the state authorities on a state charge. None of the cases relied upon by the Government support the notion that a Treasury Agent can go through all the state correctional institutions throughout the United States collecting handwriting exemplars in regard to cases in which no probable cause exists in regard to the persons from whom samples of handwriting are sought.

III.

It was not until Davis v. Mississippi, 394 U.S. 721, 89 S.Ct. 1394, 22 L.Ed.2d 676 (1969), that the Court dealt with a finger-printing case, a type of evidence which Schmerber lumped together with photographing and writing for identification. Davis explicitly rejected the argument that finger printing evidence was not subject to the proscriptions of the Fourth Amendment. Davis reiterated long established principles when it stated that regardless of how relevant or trustworthy the seized evidence may be, the exclusionary rule fashioned as a sanction for violation of the Fourth Amendment was designed “to redress and deter overreaching governmental conduct prohibited by the Fourth Amendment” (394 U.S. at 724, 89 S.Ct. at 1396). The Mississippi rape conviction was reversed for the reason that the finger prints admitted in evidence were obtained as a product of an unlawful detention of the defendant. It was apparent on the facts of that case, there simply was not probable cause for defendant’s arrest.

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

Related

United States v. McNeese
361 F. Supp. 1100 (E.D. Oklahoma, 1973)
McGill v. State
490 S.W.2d 449 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1973)
In Re Riccardi
337 F. Supp. 253 (D. New Jersey, 1972)
In re Grand Jury Impaneled November 4, 1970
337 F. Supp. 253 (D. New Jersey, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
325 F. Supp. 583, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-long-mowd-1971.