Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents two related questions: First, does our decision in Miranda v. Arizona,
I
A
The parties have stipulated to the essential facts. See App. to Pet. for Cert. A-l. On the evening of March 31, 1980, Trooper Williams of the Ohio State Highway Patrol observed respondent’s car weaving in and out of a lane on Interstate Highway 270. After following the car for two miles, Williams forced respondent to stop and asked him to get out of the vehicle. When respondent complied, Williams noticed that he was having difficulty standing. At that point, “Williams concluded that [respondent] would be charged with a traffic offense and, therefore, his freedom to leave the scene was terminated.” Id., at A-2. However, respondent was not told that he would be taken into custody. Williams then asked respondent to perform a field sobriety test, commonly known as a “balancing test.” Respondent could not do so without falling.
While still at the scene of the traffic stop, Williams asked respondent whether he had been using intoxicants. Respondent replied that “he had consumed two beers and had smoked several joints of marijuana a short time before.” Ibid. Respondent’s speech was slurred, and Williams had difficulty understanding him. Williams thereupon formally placed respondent under arrest and transported him in the patrol car to the Franklin County Jail.
At the jail, respondent was given an intoxilyzer test to determine the concentration of alcohol in his blood.
At no point in this sequence of events did Williams or anyone else tell respondent that he had a right to remain silent, to consult with an attorney, and to have an attorney appointed for him if he could not afford one.
B
Respondent was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs in violation of Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §4511.19 (Supp. 1983). Under Ohio law, that offense is a first-degree misdemeanor and is punishable by fine or imprisonment for up to six months. § 2929.21 (1982). Incarceration for a minimum of three days is mandatory. §4511.99 (Supp. 1983).
Respondent moved to exclude the various incriminating statements he had made to Trooper Williams on the ground that introduction into evidence of those statements would violate the Fifth Amendment insofar as he had not been informed of his constitutional rights prior to his interrogation. When the trial court denied the motion, respondent pleaded “no contest” and was found guilty.
On appeal to the Franklin County Court of Appeals, respondent renewed his constitutional claim. Relying on a prior decision by the Ohio Supreme Court, which held that the rule announced in Miranda “is not applicable to misdemeanors,” State v. Pyle,
Respondent then filed an action for a writ of habeas corpus in the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
A divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed, holding that “Miranda warnings must be given to all individuals prior to custodial interrogation, whether the offense investigated be a felony or a misdemeanor traffic offense.” McCarty v. Herdman,
We granted certiorari to resolve confusion in the federal and state courts regarding the applicability of our ruling in
The Fifth Amendment provides: “No person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself . . . .” It is settled that this provision governs state as well as federal criminal proceedings. Malloy v. Hogan,
In Miranda v. Arizona,
“[T]he prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodial interrogation of [a] 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. As for the procedural safeguards to be employed, unless other fully effective means are devised to inform accused persons of their right of silence and to assure a continuous opportunity to exercise it, the*429 following measures are required. Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him, and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed.” Id., at 444 (footnote omitted).
In the years since the decision in Miranda, we have frequently reaffirmed the central principle established by that case: if the police take a suspect into custody and then ask him questions without informing him of the rights enumerated above, his responses cannot be introduced into evidence to establish his guilt.
Petitioner asks us to carve an exception out of the foregoing principle. When the police arrest a person for allegedly committing a misdemeanor traffic offense and then ask him questions without telling him his constitutional rights, petitioner argues, his responses should be admissible against him.
“Miranda’s holding has the virtue of informing police and prosecutors with specificity as to what they may do in conducting custodial interrogation, and of informing courts under what circumstances statements obtained during such interrogation are not admissible. This gain in specificity, which benefits the accused and the State alike, has been thought to outweigh the burdens that the decision in Miranda imposes on law enforcement agencies and the courts by requiring the suppression of trustworthy and highly probative evidence even though the confession might be voluntary under traditional Fifth Amendment analysis.” Fare v. Michael C.,442 U. S. 707 , 718 (1979).
The exception to Miranda proposed by petitioner would substantially undermine this crucial advantage of the doctrine. The police often are unaware when they arrest a person whether he may have committed a misdemeanor or a felony. Consider, for example, the reasonably common situation in which the driver of a car involved in an accident is taken into custody. Under Ohio law, both driving while under the influence of intoxicants and negligent vehicular homicide are misdemeanors, Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §§2903.07, 4511.99 (Supp. 1983), while reckless vehicular homicide is a felony, §2903.06 (Supp. 1983). When arresting a person for causing a collision, the police may not know which of these offenses he may have committed. Indeed, the nature of his offense may depend upon circumstances unknowable to the police, such as whether the suspect has previously committed
Equally importantly, the doctrinal complexities that would confront the courts if we accepted petitioner’s proposal would be Byzantine. Difficult questions quickly spring to mind: For instance, investigations into seemingly minor offenses sometimes escalate gradually into investigations into more serious matters;
Absent a compelling justification we surely would be unwilling so seriously to impair the simplicity and clarity of the holding of Miranda. Neither of the two arguments proffered by petitioner constitutes such a justification. Petitioner first contends that Miranda warnings are unnecessary when a suspect is questioned about a misdemeanor traffic offense, because the police have no reason to subject such a suspect to the sort of interrogation that most troubled the Court in Miranda. We cannot agree that the dangers of police abuse are so slight in this context. For example, the offense of driving while intoxicated is increasingly regarded in many jurisdictions as a very serious matter.
We do not suggest that there is any reason to think improper efforts were made in this case to induce respondent to make damaging admissions. More generally, we have no doubt that, in conducting most custodial interrogations of persons arrested for misdemeanor traffic offenses, the police behave responsibly and do not deliberately exert pressures upon the suspect to confess against his will. But the same might be said of custodial interrogations of persons arrested for felonies. The purposes of the safeguards prescribed by Miranda are to ensure that the police do not coerce or trick captive suspects into confessing,
We hold therefore that a person subjected to custodial interrogation is entitled to the benefit of the procedural safeguards enunciated in Miranda,
The implication of this holding is that the Court of Appeals was correct in ruling that the statements made by respondent at the County Jail were inadmissible. There can be no question that respondent was “in custody” at least as of the moment he was formally placed under arrest and instructed to get into the police car. Because he was not informed of
h — I > — ! 1 — t
To assess the admissibility of the self-incriminating statements made by respondent prior to his formal arrest, we are obliged to address a second issue concerning the scope of our decision in Miranda: whether the roadside questioning of a motorist detained pursuant to a routine traffic stop should be considered “custodial interrogation.” Respondent urges that it should,
It must be acknowledged at the outset that a traffic stop significantly curtails the “freedom of action” of the driver and the passengers, if any, of the detained vehicle. Under the law of most States, it is a crime either to ignore a policeman’s signal to stop one’s car or, once having stopped, to drive away without permission. E. g., Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §4511.02 (1982).
However, we decline to accord talismanic power to the phrase in the Miranda opinion emphasized by respondent. Fidelity to the doctrine announced in Miranda requires that it be enforced strictly, but only in those types of situations in which the concerns that powered the decision are implicated. Thus, we must decide whether a traffic stop exerts upon a detained person pressures that sufficiently impair his free exercise of his privilege against self-incrimination to require that he be warned of his constitutional rights.
Two features of an ordinary traffic stop mitigate the danger that a person questioned will be induced “to speak where he would not otherwise do so freely,” Miranda v. Arizona,
Second, circumstances associated with the typical traffic stop are not such that the motorist feels completely at the mercy of the police. To be sure, the aura of authority surrounding an armed, uniformed officer and the knowledge that the officer has some discretion in deciding whether to issue a citation, in combination, exert some pressure on the detainee to respond to questions. But other aspects of the situation substantially offset these forces. Perhaps most importantly, the typical traffic stop is public, at least to some degree. Passersby, on foot or in other cars, witness the interaction of officer and motorist. This exposure to public view both reduces the ability of an unscrupulous policeman to use illegitimate means to elicit self-incriminating statements and diminishes the motorist’s fear that, if he does not cooperate, he will be subjected to abuse. The fact that the detained motorist typically is confronted by only one or at most two policemen further mutes his sense of vulnerability. In short, the atmo
In both of these respects, the usual traffic stop is more analogous to a so-called “Terry stop,” see Terry v. Ohio,
Respondent contends that to “exempt” traffic stops from the coverage of Miranda will open the way to widespread abuse. Policemen will simply delay formally arresting detained motorists, and will subject them to sustained and intimidating interrogation at the scene of their initial detention. Cf. State v. Roberti,
We are confident that the state of affairs projected by respondent will not come to pass. It is settled that the safeguards prescribed by Miranda become applicable as soon as a suspect’s freedom of action is curtailed to a “degree associated with formal arrest.” California v. Beheler,
Turning to the case before us, we find nothing in the record that indicates that respondent should have been given Miranda warnings at any point prior to the time Trooper Williams placed him under arrest. For the reasons indicated above, we reject the contention that the initial stop of respondent’s car, by itself, rendered him “in custody.” And respondent has failed to demonstrate that, at any time between the initial stop and the arrest, he was subjected to restraints comparable to those associated with a formal arrest. Only a short period of time elapsed between the stop and the arrest.
We conclude, in short, that respondent was not taken into custody for the purposes of Miranda until Williams arrested him. Consequently, the statements respondent made prior to that point were admissible against him.
IV
We are left with the question of the appropriate remedy. In his brief, petitioner contends that, if we agree with the
First, the issue of harmless error was not presented to any of the Ohio courts, to the District Court, or to the Court of Appeals.
Second, the admissions respondent made at the scene of the traffic stop and the statements he made at the police station were not identical. Most importantly, though respondent at the scene admitted having recently drunk beer and smoked marihuana, not until questioned at the station did he
Third, the case arises in a procedural posture that makes the use of harmless-error analysis especially difficult.
Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is
Affirmed.
Notes
For a description of the technology associated with the intoxilyzer test, see California v. Trombetta,
Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §2937.07 (1982) provides, in pertinent part: “If the plea be ‘no contest’ or words of similar import in pleading to a misdemeanor, it shall constitute a stipulation that the judge or magistrate may-make [a] finding of guilty or not guilty from the explanation of circumstances, and if guilt be found, impose or continue for sentence accordingly.”
Ohio Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(H) provides: “The plea of no contest does not preclude a defendant from asserting upon appeal that the trial
On respondent’s motion, the state trial court stayed execution of respondent’s sentence pending the outcome of his application for a writ of habeas corpus. State v. McCarty, No. 80-TF-C-123915 (Franklin County Mun. Ct., July 28, 1981).
In differentiating respondent’s various admissions, the Court of Appeals accorded no significance to the parties’ stipulation that respondent’s
Judge Wellford, dissenting, observed: “As I read the opinion, the majority finds that McCarty was not in custody until he was formally placed under arrest.”
Judge Wellford’s dissent was premised on his view that the incriminating statements made by respondent after he was formally taken into custody were “essentially repetitious” of the statements he made before his arrest. Reasoning that the prearrest statements were admissible, Judge Wellford argued that the trial court’s failure to suppress the postarrest statements was “harmless error.” Id., at 365.
In Clay v. Riddle,
The lower courts have dealt with the problem of roadside questioning in a wide variety of ways. For a spectrum of positions, see State v. Tellez,
In Harris v. New York,
The one exception to this consistent line of decisions is New York v. Quarles,
Not all of petitioner’s formulations of his proposal are consistent. At some points in his brief and at oral argument, petitioner appeared to advocate an exception solely for drunken-driving charges; at other points, he
Thus, under Ohio law, while a first offense of negligent vehicular homicide is a misdemeanor, a second offense is a felony. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2903.07 (Supp. 1983). In some jurisdictions, a certain number of convictions for drunken driving triggers a quantum jump in the status of the crime. In South Dakota, for instance, first and second offenses for driving while intoxicated are misdemeanors, but a third offense is a felony. See Solem v. Helm,
Cf. Welsh v. Wisconsin,
It might be argued that the police would not need to make such guesses; whenever in doubt, they could ensure compliance with the law by giving the full Miranda warnings. It cannot be doubted, however, that in some cases a desire to induce a suspect to reveal information he might withhold if informed of his rights would induce the police not to take the cautious course.
See, e. g., United States v. Schultz,
Cf. United States v. Robinson,
Cf. New York v. Quarles,
See Brief for State of Ohio as Amicus Curiae 18-21 (discussing the “National Epidemic Of Impaired Drivers” and the importance of stemming it); cf. South Dakota v. Neville,
See Rhode Island v. Innis,
Minnesota v. Murphy,
Cf. Developments in the Law — Confessions, 79 Harv. L. Rev. 935, 954-984 (1966) (describing the difficulties encountered by state and federal courts, during the period preceding the decision in Miranda, in trying to distinguish voluntary from involuntary confessions).
We do not suggest that compliance with Miranda conclusively establishes the voluntariness of a subsequent confession. But cases in which a defendant can make a colorable argument that a self-incriminating statement was “compelled” despite the fact that the law enforcement authorities adhered to the dictates of Miranda are rare.
The parties urge us to answer two questions concerning the precise scope of the safeguards required in circumstances of the sort involved in this case. First, we are asked to consider what a State must do in order to demonstrate that a suspect who might have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol when subjected to custodial interrogation nevertheless understood and freely waived his constitutional rights. Second, it is suggested that we decide whether an indigent suspect has a right, under the Fifth Amendment, to have an attorney appointed to advise him regarding his responses to custodial interrogation when the alleged offense about which he is being questioned is sufficiently minor that he would not have a right, under the Sixth Amendment, to the assistance of appointed counsel at trial, see Scott v. Illinois,
In his brief, respondent hesitates to embrace this proposition fully, advocating instead a more limited rule under which questioning of a suspect detained pursuant to a traffic stop would be deemed “custodial interrogation” if and only if the police officer had probable cause to arrest the motorist for a crime. See Brief for Respondent 39-40, 46. This ostensibly more modest proposal has little to recommend it. The threat to a citizen’s Fifth Amendment rights that Miranda was designed to neutralize has little to do with the strength of an interrogating officer’s suspicions. And, by requiring a policeman conversing with a motorist constantly to monitor the information available to him to determine when it becomes sufficient to establish probable cause, the rule proposed by respondent would be extremely difficult to administer. Accordingly, we confine our attention below to respondent’s stronger argument: that all traffic stops are subject to the dictates of Miranda.
It might be argued that, insofar as the Court of Appeals expressly held inadmissible only the statements made by respondent after his formal arrest, and respondent has not filed a cross-petition, respondent is dis-entitled at this juncture to assert that Miranda warnings must be given to a detained motorist who has not been arrested. See, e. g., United States v. Reliable Transfer Co.,
Examples of similar provisions in other States are: Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§28-622, 28-622.01 (1976 and Supp. 1983-1984); Cal. Veh. Code Ann. §§2800, 2800.1 (West Supp. 1984); Del. Code Ann., Tit. 21, §4103 (1979); Fla. Stat. §316.1935 (Supp. 1984); Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 95%, ¶ 11-204 (1983); N. Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 1102 (McKinney Supp. 1983-1984); Nev. Rev. Stat. §484.348(1) (1983); 75 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3733(a) (1977); Wash. Rev. Code §46.61.020 (1983).
Indeed, petitioner frankly admits that “[n]o reasonable person would feel that he was free to ignore the visible and audible signal of a traffic safety enforcement officer .... Moreover, it is nothing short of sophistic to state that a motorist ordered by a police officer to step out of his vehicle would reasonably] or prudently believe that he was at liberty to ignore that command.” Brief for Petitioner 16-17.
State laws governing when a motorist detained pursuant to a traffic stop may or must be issued a citation instead of taken into custody vary significantly, see Y. Kamisar, W. LaFave, & J. Israel, Modern Criminal Procedure 402, n. a (5th ed. 1980), but no State requires that a detained motorist be arrested unless he is accused of a specified serious crime, refuses to promise to appear in court, or demands to be taken before a magistrate. For a representative sample of these provisions, see Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§28-1053, 28-1054 (1976); Ga. Code Ann. §40-13-53 (Supp. 1983); Kan. Stat. Ann. §§8-2105, 8-2106 (1982); Nev. Rev. Stat. §§484.793, 484.795, 484.797, 484.799, 484.805 (1983); Ore. Rev. Stat. § 484.353 (1983); S. D. Codified Laws § 32-33-2 (Supp. 1983); Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. Ann., Art. 6701d, §§147, 148 (Vernon 1977); Va. Code
The brevity and spontaneity of an ordinary traffic stop also reduces the danger that the driver through subterfuge will be made to incriminate himself. One of the investigative techniques that Miranda was designed to guard against was the use by police of various kinds of trickery — such as “Mutt and Jeff” routines — to elicit confessions from suspects. See
See Orozco v. Texas,
No more is implied by this analogy than that most traffic stops resemble, in duration and atmosphere, the kind of brief detention authorized in Terry. We of course do not suggest that a traffic stop supported by probable cause may not exceed the bounds set by the Fourth Amendment on the scope of a Terry stop.
Nothing in this opinion is intended to refine the constraints imposed by the Fourth Amendment on the duration of such detentions. Cf. Sharpe v. United States,
Cf. Adams v. Williams,
Cf. Terry v. Ohio,
Contrast the minor burdens on law enforcement and significant protection of citizens’ rights effected by our holding that Miranda governs custodial interrogation of persons accused of misdemeanor traffic offenses. See supra, at 432-434.
Cf. Commonwealth v. Meyer,
Cf. Beckwith v. United States,
Cf. United States v. Schultz,
Judge Wellford, dissenting in the Court of Appeals, did address the issue of harmless error, see n. 6, supra, but without the benefit of briefing by the parties. The majority of the panel of the Court of Appeals did not consider the question.
Nor did petitioner mention harmless error in his petition to this Court. Absent unusual circumstances, cf. n. 23, supra, we are chary of considering issues not presented in petitions for certiorari. See this Court’s Rule 21.1(a) (“Only the questions set forth in the petition or fairly included therein will be considered by the Court”).
This case is thus not comparable to Milton v. Wainwright,
Because we do not rule that the trial court’s error was harmless, we need not decide whether harmless-error analysis is even applicable to a case of this sort.
Under Ohio law, respondent had a right to pursue such a course. See n. 2, supra.
Indeed, respondent points out that he told Trooper Williams of these ailments at the time of his arrest, and their existence was duly noted in the Alcohol Influence Report. See App. 2.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
The only question presented by the petition for certiorari reads as follows:
“Whether law enforcement officers must give ‘Miranda warnings’ to individuals arrested for misdemeanor traffic offenses.”
In Parts I, II, and IV of its opinion, the Court answers that question in the affirmative and explains why that answer requires that the judgment of the Court of Appeals be affirmed. Part III of the Court’s opinion is written for the purpose of discussing the admissibility of statements made by respondent “prior to his formal arrest,” see ante, at 435. That discussion is not necessary to the disposition of the case, nor necessary to answer the only question presented by the cer-tiorari petition. Indeed, the Court of Appeals quite properly did not pass on the question answered in Part III since it was entirely unnecessary to the judgment in this case. It thus wisely followed the cardinal rule that a court should not pass on a constitutional question in advance of the necessity of deciding it. See, e. g., Ashwander v. TV A,
Lamentably, this Court fails to follow the course of judicial restraint that we have set for the entire federal judiciary. In this case, it appears the reason for reaching out to decide a question not passed upon below and unnecessary to the judgment is that the answer to the question upon which we granted review is so clear under our settled precedents that the majority — its appetite for deciding constitutional ques
Because I remain convinced that the Court should abjure the practice of reaching out to decide cases on the broadest grounds possible, e. g., United States v. Doe,