TAYLOR v. ALABAMA
No. 81-5152
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 23, 1982—Decided June 23, 1982
457 U.S. 687
Robert M. Beno argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioner.
Thomas R. Allison, Assistant Attorney General of Alabama, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Charles A. Graddick, Attorney General.*
JUSTICE MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the narrow question whether petitioner‘s confession should have been suppressed as the fruit of an illegal arrest. The Supreme Court of Alabama held that the evidence was properly admitted. Because the decision below is inconsistent with our decisions in Dunaway v. New York, 442 U. S. 200 (1979), and Brown v. Illinois, 422 U. S. 590 (1975), we reverse.
I
In 1978, a grocery store in Montgomery, Ala., was robbed. There had been a number of robberies in this area, and the police had initiated an intensive manhunt in an effort to apprehend the robbers. An individual who was at that time incarcerated on unrelated charges told a police officer that “he had heard that [petitioner] Omar Taylor was involved in the robbery.” App. 4. This individual had never before given similar information to this officer, did not tell the officer where he had heard this information, and did not provide any details of the crime. This tip was insufficient to give
Nonetheless, on the basis of this information, two officers arrested petitioner without a warrant. They told petitioner that he was being arrested in connection with the grocerystore robbery, searched him, and took him to the station for questioning. Petitioner was given the warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966). At the station, he was fingerprinted, readvised of his Miranda rights, questioned, and placed in a lineup. The victims of the robbery were unable to identify him in the lineup. The police told petitioner that his fingerprints matched those on some grocery items that had been handled by one of the participants in the robbery. After a short visit with his girlfriend and a male companion, petitioner signed a waiver-of-rights form and executed a written confession. The form and the signed confession were admitted into evidence.
Petitioner objected to the admission of this evidence at his trial. He argued that his warrantless arrest was not supported by probable cause, that he had been involuntarily transported to the police station, and that the confession must be suppressed as the fruit of this illegal arrest. The trial court overruled this objection, and petitioner was convicted. On appeal, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, 399 So. 2d 875 (1980), holding that the facts of this case are virtually indistinguishable from those presented to this Court in Dunaway v. New York, supra, and that the confession should not have been admitted into evidence. The Alabama Supreme Court reversed the Court of Criminal Appeals, 399 So. 2d 881 (1981), and we granted certiorari, 454 U. S. 963 (1981).
II
In Brown v. Illinois, supra, and Dunaway v. New York, supra, the police arrested suspects without probable cause. The suspects were transported to police headquarters, advised of their Miranda rights, and interrogated. They con
In Brown and Dunaway, this Court firmly established that the fact that the confession may be “voluntary” for purposes of the Fifth Amendment, in the sense that Miranda warnings were given and understood, is not by itself sufficient to purge the taint of the illegal arrest. In this situation, a finding of “voluntariness” for purposes of the Fifth Amendment is merely a threshold requirement for Fourth Amendment analysis. See Dunaway v. New York, supra, at 217. The reason for this approach is clear: “[t]he exclusionary rule, when utilized to effectuate the Fourth Amendment, serves interests and policies that are distinct from those it serves under the Fifth” Amendment. Brown v. Illinois, 422 U. S., at 601. If Miranda warnings were viewed as a talisman that cured all Fourth Amendment violations, then the constitutional guarantee against unlawful searches and seizures would be reduced to a mere “‘form of words.‘” Id., at 603 (quoting Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643, 648 (1961)).
This case is a virtual replica of both Brown and Dunaway.
The State points to several intervening events that it argues are sufficient to break the connection between the illegal arrest and petitioner‘s confession. It observes that petitioner was given Miranda warnings three times. As our foregoing discussion of Brown and Dunaway demonstrates, however, the State‘s reliance on the giving of Miranda warnings is misplaced. The State also observes that petitioner visited with his girlfriend and a male companion before he confessed. This claim fares no better. According to the officer and petitioner, these two visitors were outside the interrogation room where petitioner was being questioned. After petitioner signed a waiver-of-rights form, he was allowed to meet with these visitors. The State fails to explain how this 5- to 10-minute visit, after which petitioner immediately recanted his former statements that he knew nothing about the robbery and signed the confession, could possibly have contributed to his ability to consider carefully and objectively his options and to exercise his free will. This sugges
The State points to an arrest warrant filed after petitioner had been arrested and while he was being interrogated as another significant “intervening event.” While petitioner was in custody, the police determined that the fingerprints on some grocery items matched those that they had taken from petitioner immediately after his arrest. Based on this comparison, an arrest warrant was filed. The filing of this warrant, however, is irrelevant to whether the confession was the fruit of the illegal arrest. This case is not like Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U. S. 356 (1972), where the defendant was brought before a committing Magistrate who advised him of his rights and set bail. Here, the arrest warrant was filed ex parte, based on the comparison of the fingerprints found at the scene of the crime and petitioner‘s fingerprints, which had been taken immediately after his arrest. The initial fin
Finally, the State argues that the police conduct here was not flagrant or purposeful, and that we should not follow our decisions in Brown and Dunaway for that reason. However, we fail to see any relevant distinction between the conduct here and that in Dunaway. In this case, as in Dunaway, the police effectuated an investigatory arrest without probable cause, based on an uncorroborated informant‘s tip, and involuntarily transported petitioner to the station for interrogation in the hope that something would turn up. The fact that the police did not physically abuse petitioner, or that the confession they obtained may have been “voluntary” for purposes of the Fifth Amendment, does not cure the illegality of the initial arrest. Alternatively, the State contends that the police conduct here argues for adopting a “good faith” exception to the exclusionary rule. To date, we have not recognized such an exception, and we decline to do so here.
In sum, petitioner‘s confession was the fruit of his illegal arrest. Under our decisions in Brown v. Illinois and Dunaway v. New York, the confession clearly should not have been admitted at his trial. Accordingly, we reverse the decision of the Alabama Supreme Court and remand this case for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
JUSTICE O‘CONNOR, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE, JUSTICE POWELL, and JUSTICE REHNQUIST join, dissenting.
The Court holds today that Omar Taylor‘s detailed confession was the fruit of an illegal arrest, and consequently, should be suppressed. Because I conclude that neither the facts nor the law supports the Court‘s analysis, I respectfully dissent.
I
In the course of their investigation of the Moseley robbery, Montgomery police questioned Charles Martin, who was being held on unrelated rape and robbery charges. Martin stated that “he had heard that Omar Taylor was involved in the robbery of Moseley‘s Grocery,” Tr. 6, but the police made no attempt to establish either Martin‘s credibility as an informant or the reliability of the information he provided.1
Based only on this tip, which did not provide probable cause, Sergeants Alford and Rutland arrested Taylor a little before 3 p.m. on January 4, 1979. At that time, they told him why he was being arrested and advised him of his Miranda rights, but asked him no questions regarding the robbery. Tr. 20, 24. When they arrived at the police station, the officers turned Taylor over to detectives.
After Taylor had been fingerprinted and signed a form
Toward 9 p.m. that evening, Detective Hicks readvised Taylor of his Miranda rights, Tr. 25, and Taylor once again read and signed a form setting forth his Miranda rights. Tr. 28, 125. At no time did Taylor ask for a lawyer or indicate that he did not want to talk to police. Id., at 28-29, 35, 40. During his 5- to 10-minute interview with Taylor, Detective Hicks confronted him with the fingerprint evidence. Id., at 36. Hicks urged the petitioner to cooperate with the police, but carefully refrained from making him any promises, stating that at most he could inform the judge of the petitioner‘s cooperation. Id., at 31, 34. Taylor continued to deny involvement in the robbery. Id., at 35-36.
Following this conversation, both the petitioner‘s girlfriend and his neighbor came to the police station and requested to speak with him. When Taylor indicated that he wanted to speak with his friends, Detective Hicks left them alone in his office for several minutes.2 After that meeting,
Before trial, the petitioner moved to suppress his confes
II
Although the Court misapprehends the facts of the present case, it has stated correctly the controlling substantive law. In the Court‘s words, “a confession obtained through custodial interrogation after an illegal arrest should be excluded unless intervening events break the causal connection between the illegal arrest and the confession so that the confession is ‘sufficiently an act of free will to purge the primary taint.‘” Ante, at 690 (quoting Brown v. Illinois, 422 U. S. 590, 602 (1975)).
In Brown, this Court emphasized that ”Miranda warnings are an important factor... in determining whether the confession [was] obtained by exploitation of an illegal arrest.” Id., at 603.5 The Court did not discount the significance
In light of those factors, the Brown Court reviewed the record and found that “Brown‘s first statement was separated from his illegal arrest by less than two hours, and [that] there was no intervening event of significance whatsoever.” Id., at 604. Moreover, the police conduct in arresting Brown was particularly egregious. The “impropriety of the arrest was obvious,” and the “manner in which Brown‘s arrest was effected gives the appearance of having been calculated to cause surprise, fright, and confusion.” Id., at 605. The Court held that as a consequence the confession should have been suppressed.
Four Terms later, in Dunaway v. New York, 442 U. S. 200, 204 (1979), this Court reaffirmed the Brown rule that in order to use at trial statements obtained following an arrest on less than probable cause
“the prosecution must show not only that the statements meet the Fifth Amendment voluntariness standard, but also that the causal connection between the statements and the illegal arrest is broken sufficiently to purge the primary taint of the illegal arrest.”
Finding the facts in Dunaway to be “virtually a replica of the situation in Brown,” id., at 218, the Court held that the petitioner‘s confession should have been suppressed. Critical to the Court‘s holding was its observation that the petitioner
III
Our task is to apply the law as articulated in Brown and Dunaway to the facts of this case.
The first significant consideration is that following his unlawful arrest, Taylor was warned on three separate occasions that he
“had a right to remain silent, [and] anything he said could be used against him in a court of law[;] he had the right to have an attorney present, [and] if he could not afford one, the State would appoint one for him[;] he could answer questions but he could stop answering at any time.” Tr. 23.
Under Brown and Dunaway, these warnings must be counted as “an important factor... in determining whether the confession [was] obtained by exploitation of an illegal arrest,” Brown v. Illinois, supra, at 603, though they are, standing alone, insufficient to prove that the primary taint of an illegal arrest had been purged.
Second, in contrast to the facts in Brown, the facts in the present case show that the petitioner was not subjected to intimidating police misconduct. In Brown, police had broken into the petitioner‘s house and searched it. When the petitioner later came home, two officers pointed their guns at him and arrested him, leading the Court to conclude that “[t]he manner in which [the petitioner‘s] arrest was effected gives the appearance of having been calculated to cause surprise, fright, and confusion.” 422 U. S., at 605. By contrast, nothing in the record before us indicates that the petitioner‘s arrest was violent, or designed to “cause surprise, fright, and confusion.” Instead, Montgomery officers ap
Third, while in both Brown and Dunaway there was “no intervening event of significance whatsoever,” 422 U. S., at 604, in the present case Taylor‘s girlfriend and neighbor came to the police station and asked to speak with him. Before meeting with his two friends, the petitioner steadfastly had denied involvement in the Moseley robbery. Immediately following the meeting, the petitioner gave a complete and detailed confession of his participation in the armed robbery. This meeting between the petitioner and his two friends, as described by the police in their testimony at the suppression hearing, plainly constituted an intervening circumstance.
Finally, the record reveals that the petitioner spent most of the time between his arrest and confession by himself.6 In Dunaway and Brown, by contrast, the defendants were interrogated continuously before they made incriminating statements.
In sum, when these four factors are considered together,7 it is obvious that there is no sufficient basis on which to overturn the trial court‘s finding that “there were enough intervening factors” to overcome the taint of the illegal arrest. In fact, I believe it is clear that the State carried its burden of proof. The petitioner was warned of his rights to remain si
Notes
The petitioner, of course, had a vastly different version. He testified that the police had brought his girlfriend into the room and told him, in her presence, that he was facing 10 years to life in prison, but that if he cooperated they might be able to arrange a suspended sentence or probation. Upon hearing that remark, the petitioner‘s girlfriend became upset and began to cry, at which point the police left the petitioner alone with his friends. Id., at 52. As we noted above, the police expressly denied making any such statements. More importantly, upon comparing the two versions, it becomes clear that in an effort to support its holding, the Court has parsed through the petitioner‘s story and plucked those tidbits that the police did not expressly contradict. This method of setting forth the facts of a case on appellate review hardly comports with the rule that an appellate court must adopt any reasonable view of the evidence that supports the trial court‘s ruling.
Since there is nothing unreasonable about the police account of the meeting between the petitioner and his friends, that version is the one we must accept on review. At the hearing, Detective Hicks testified that after Taylor asked to speak with his friends, the police left them alone together. There is no suggestion, other than the petitioner‘s discredited version of the meeting, that the police said anything to the petitioner‘s girlfriend, or that she became upset. Thus, the Court errs in stating that the petitioner‘s girlfriend became upset because of statements made by the police, and in intimating that the police created a coercive atmosphere in which the petitioner could not carefully consider his options and, on the basis of his friends’ advice, decide to confess to the robbery.
“We need not hold that all evidence is ‘fruit of the poisonous tree’ simply because it would not have come to light but for the illegal actions of the police. Rather, the more apt question in such a case is ‘whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality, the evidence to which instant objection is made has been come at by exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.’ Maguire, Evidence of Guilt, 221 (1959).” Id., at 487-488.