United States v. Warren

642 F.3d 182, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 8169, 2011 WL 1496986
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedApril 21, 2011
Docket10-1598
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 642 F.3d 182 (United States v. Warren) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Warren, 642 F.3d 182, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 8169, 2011 WL 1496986 (3d Cir. 2011).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

NYGAARD, Circuit Judge.

Warren was indicted on charges of intent to distribute fifty or more grams of crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(l)(A)(iii), and possession of a firearm by a person previously convicted of a felony in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). He filed a pretrial motion to, inter alia, suppress evidence allegedly obtained in violation of his Miranda rights. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 471, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The District Court granted Warren’s motion in part, as to statements Warren made at his home to his state parole agent, but denied it as to statements Warren made at the police station after receiving the Miranda warning. Warren appeals this ruling. We will affirm.

Warren later entered into a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to the drug charge. In this agreement, the government states that it will refrain from filing, pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 851, an information to increase the penalty based upon a prior conviction. On appeal, Warren contends that the government breached this provision of the agreement. We will dismiss the breach of plea agreement claim.

I.

We will first address the Miranda issue.1 At the police station, Warren sig[184]*184naled that he wished to talk. The police officer’s testimony at the suppression hearing gives an account of what happened next.

I told [Warren] that he had the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford to hire an attorney, one will be appointed to represent you without charge before any questioning if you wish. Should you decide to talk to me, you can stop the questioning any time.

Suppression Hearing 12, ECF No. 60. The record makes clear that the officer did not read this warning from a card, but rather recited it from memory. Warren does not challenge the accuracy of the officer’s testimony. Instead, Warren argues that the officer’s testimony evinces a deficient Miranda warning because it failed to advise him of his right to an attorney after questioning commenced.

The Supreme Court stated in Miranda, that authorities are obligated to advise a person taken into custody of “the right to consult with a lawyer and to have the lawyer with him during interrogation.” Miranda, 384 U.S. at 471, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Yet, in the years since Miranda, the Supreme Court has consistently refrained from constructing a particular formula for the warning. In Duckworth, the Court held the following.

Reviewing courts are not required to examine Miranda warnings as if construing a will or defining the terms of an easement. The inquiry is simply whether the warnings reasonably “eonve[y] to [a suspect] his rights as required by Miranda.”

Duckworth v. Eagan, 492 U.S. 195, 203, 109 S.Ct. 2875, 106 L.Ed.2d 166 (1989) (quoting California v. Prysock, 453 U.S. 355, 361, 101 S.Ct. 2806, 69 L.Ed.2d 696 (1981)). The Court recently reaffirmed this standard in Florida v. Powell, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 1195, 1198, 175 L.Ed.2d 1009 (U.S.2010).2

After Powell was arrested, but before the Tampa, Florida, police questioned him, an officer recited the Miranda warning from a pre-printed card. The officer told Powell, inter alia, “[y]ou have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any of our questions” and then that Powell had “the right to use any of these rights at any time you want during this interview.” Id. at 1197. At issue was whether the lack of any specific reference to Powell’s right to an attorney during questioning rendered statements he made during the interview inadmissible. Powell argued that Miranda was clear in its requirement that a person in custody must be advised of the right to counsel during questioning. He asserted that, by qualifying the language about counsel with the phrase “before answering any of our questions” the warning was deficient because it communicated that his right terminated when questioning began. The Supreme Court disagreed.

Miranda requires that a suspect be informed of the right to have counsel present during questioning. Miranda, 384 at 471, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Yet, as was highlighted in questioning by Justice Ginsburg at oral argument, Miranda regarded the warning used at that time by the Federal [185]*185Bureau of Investigation — which did not explicitly state any right to counsel at the time of questioning — as consistent with its holding. Oral Argument at 6:20, Id. at 483, 86 S.Ct. 1602 (No. 08-1175), available at http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/ 2009/2009_08_1175. That warning was characterized in Miranda as stating the following.

[The person in custody] is not required to make a statement, that any statement may be used against him in court, that the individual may obtain the services of an attorney of his own choice and ... that he has a right to free counsel if he is unable to pay.

Miranda, 384 U.S. at 483, 86 S.Ct. 1602. The Court went on to state that this warning could be “emulated by state and local enforcement agencies.” Id. at 486, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Miranda court regarded an express reference to the temporal durability of this right as elemental to a valid warning. Rather, as the Powell decision underscores in quoting Prysock, attention must be focused upon whether anything in the warning “ ‘suggested any limitation on the right to the presence of appointed counsel different from the clearly conveyed rights to a lawyer in general, including the right to a lawyer before [the suspect is] questioned, ... while [he is] being questioned, and all during the questioning.’ ” Powell, 130 S.Ct. at 1204 (quoting Prysock, 453 U.S. at 360-361, 101 S.Ct. 2806) (internal quotation marks in Prysock omitted) (emphasis added).

Powell argued that the warning he received contained such a limitation because it informed him that he had a right to counsel “before questioning.” The Court, however, did not regard this language as fatal to the validity of the warning for two reasons. First, the “before” language, which is similar to the language of Duck-worth, “merely conveyed when Powell’s right to an attorney became effective-namely, before he answered any questions at all.” Powell, 130 S.Ct. at 1205.3 Including these additional words did not vitiate the essential information given to the suspect that a right to counsel exists. Additionally, the Powell

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Bluebook (online)
642 F.3d 182, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 8169, 2011 WL 1496986, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-warren-ca3-2011.