U.S. v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 11 February 1988
• Docket Number: No. 86-1390,86-1390
• Citation: 838 F.2d 1081
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lavon WILSON, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1081

838 F.2d 1081

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lavon WILSON, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 86-1390.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Nov. 9, 1987.

Decided Feb. 11, 1988.

Thomas M. Hoidal, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Phoenix, Ariz., for defendant-appellant.

Karen L. Kothe, Asst. U.S. Atty., Phoenix, Ariz., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

Before GOODWIN and FLETCHER, Circuit Judges, and KING, ^* District Judge.

GOODWIN, Circuit Judge:

Lavon Wilson appeals a conviction following a conditional plea of guilty (pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2)) to second-degree murder on an Indian reservation in violation of 18 U.S.C. Secs. 1111 and 1153 (1982). Wilson entered his plea on the condition that he retain his right to appeal the district court's denial of his motion to suppress statements made by him to law enforcement officials. Wilson now seeks reversal on the ground reserved.

On the afternoon of May 9, 1985, the Navajo Police Department received a call regarding an unconscious child at the Public Health Service Hospital. At about 4:30 p.m., Officer Thompson was dispatched to the hospital and was joined shortly thereafter by Sgt. Hawkins and Officer Anderson.

The child, Melvin Wilson, was unconscious. His condition was critical. The officers interviewed the child's mother, Elta Yazzie, who told them that her common law husband, Lavon Wilson, had spanked the child with a shoe. She told the officers that Lavon was at home.

Following federal guidelines requiring Indian Police departments to notify the FBI about any homicides or serious assaults, Sgt. Hawkins immediately contacted Agents Babcock and Coffman in the Gallup, New Mexico, FBI office. Agent Babcock told Hawkins to get a written statement from the mother and to keep the FBI informed.

The officers went to Lavon Wilson's home, bringing Elta Yazzie with them. Wilson opened the door and, at Sgt. Hawkins' request, stepped outside. Hawkins read Wilson his Miranda warnings. Officers Thompson and Anderson then questioned Wilson. He denied abusing his child other than spanking him with the child's shoes. As an explanation for the child's injuries, Wilson stated that the child had fallen off the porch and that the child bruised easily. Officer Anderson found Wilson's story unbelievable and arrested him on the tribal charge of aggravated battery. The arrest took place at approximately 7:55 p.m.

Wilson was taken to the tribal jail in Window Rock, Arizona, and placed in solitary confinement. Special security precautions were taken to monitor him frequently while in custody.

At approximately 8:00 a.m. the next morning, Sgt. Hawkins again contacted Agents Babcock and Coffman, and advised them that Wilson had been arrested. The child had been moved to a hospital in Albuquerque and was thought to be brain dead. Sgt. Hawkins told them that Wilson would be in the tribal jail if they wanted to interview him.

Later that morning, Agents Babcock and Coffman came to the tribal jail. Elta Yazzie was there with some of her family. The agents went with her to Wilson's home and with her consent conducted a search. Between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m., the agents returned to the jail to question Lavon Wilson.

Sgt. Hawkins told the agents that Wilson was to be arraigned on the tribal charge that day. He told them that if the court began taking arraignments during their interview, he would make arrangements to take Wilson before the judge himself after the agents had finished the interview. Sgt. Hawkins provided the FBI agents with a room in the jail for the questioning. The room was windowless but had a half door, with the top portion open.

Agents Babcock and Coffman spoke with Wilson for more than two hours. Preliminary questioning revealed that Wilson had only a seventh grade education and had been arrested only on tribal or drinking offenses. Agent Babcock then read Wilson his Miranda rights, and asked Wilson to read them to himself, then aloud. Wilson declined to have his rights read to him in the Navajo language. He said he understood his rights and would talk to the agents about his son. The agents questioned Wilson about Melvin for approximately 1 hour and 42 minutes. Wilson thrice denied abusing his son. Agent Babcock told Wilson that he was lying and that it would be easier for him if he "got it off his chest." Babcock then asked Wilson whether he had been a victim of child abuse himself. At this point, Wilson broke down and started crying. He then confessed to having abused Melvin.

The FBI concluded its questioning at approximately 4:00 p.m., by which time the tribal court, which met upstairs in the same building, had completed the day's arraignments. Because he was being questioned, Wilson missed the regularly scheduled arraignment calendar. After Wilson confessed, Sgt. Hawkins took him up to the judge's chambers to be arraigned specially.

Melvin Wilson never regained consciousness and eventually died.

The district court's interpretation of Sec. 3501.

The district court's construction of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3501(c) (1982) is reviewed de novo. United States v. Fouche, 776 F.2d 1398, 1405 (9th Cir.1985). In 1968, Congress enacted Sec. 3501 as part of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act. The statute was a response in part to a line of cases which established the McNabb-Mallory rule. See Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449, 77 S.Ct. 1356, 1 L.Ed.2d 1479 (1957); McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 63 S.Ct. 608, 87 L.Ed. 819 (1943). See also Upshaw v. United States, 335 U.S. 410, 69 S.Ct. 170, 93 L.Ed. 100 (1948). Section 3501(a) provides that a confession "shall be admissible in evidence if it is voluntarily given." Subsection (b) sets forth factors which the court must consider in making a determination of voluntariness based on "all the circumstances surrounding the giving of the confession." ¹ Subsection (c) deals specifically with the question of prearraignment delay. It states that a confession

shall not be inadmissible solely because of delay in bringing [the defendant] before a magistrate ... if such confession is found by the trial judge to have been made voluntarily and if the weight to be given the confession is left to the jury and if such confession was made or given by such person within six hours immediately following his arrest or other detention.

18 U.S.C. Sec. 3501(c) (1982). The subsection also provides that the six-hour time limit shall not apply where the delay is found to be reasonable in light of transportation and distance to the nearest magistrate.

The district court relied on this court's decisions in United States v. Manuel, 706 F.2d 908 (9th Cir.1983), and United States v. Edwards, 539 F.2d 689 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 984, 97 S.Ct. 501, 50 L.Ed.2d 594 (1976). Those cases in turn relied on this court's decision in United States v. Halbert, 436 F.2d 1226 (9th Cir.1970).

In Halbert, this court took considerable pains to explain the significance of Sec. 3501(c) which had been passed in part to ameliorate the effect of United States v. Mallory, 354 U.S. 449, 77 S.Ct. 1356, which had been applied to invalidate confessions based solely on undue delay between arrest and arraignment. The Halbert court concluded:

... subsection 3501(b) instructs the trial judge to consider delay in arraignment in determining the voluntariness of a confession but leaves him with a great deal of discretion on what to make of it. In this context, subsection 3501(c), in providing that confessions shall not be inadmissible solely because of delay in arraignment if otherwise voluntary and given within six hours of arrest, merely removes some of the discretion given to the trial judge under subsection 3501(b) in determining voluntariness. Discretion remains in the trial judge, under subsection 3501(b), to exclude confessions as involuntary solely because of delay in arraignment during which a confession is given, that exceeds six hours.

This construction is consistent with the language of section 3501 and a scheme under which the admissibility of confessions turns on voluntariness. The integration, however, is not perfect. The effect of the proviso of subsection 3501(c) is to remove discretion from the trial judge by requiring him to admit a confession, otherwise voluntary, given more than six hours [after] arrest during a delay in arraignment if the delay was reasonable considering problems in transporting the defendant to the magistrate.

Halbert, 436 F.2d at 1234; see also Manuel, 706 F.2d at 913.

The cases relied upon by the district court to justify its refusal in this case to suppress Wilson's confession involved significantly different factual situations than those presented to us. They are unhelpful here. In Edwards, the delay beyond six hours was due solely to transportation problems, which the statute, itself, recognizes as a reasonable basis for delay. Edwards, 539 F.2d at 691. In Manuel, the court held that giving the defendant a warm meal and lodging overnight to sleep off his extreme intoxication before questioning and arraignment did not make the delay unreasonable. See Manuel, 706 F.2d at 914. The findings that the pre-arraignment delay was

reasonable and that there was no collusion between

the tribal officers and federal agents.

The district court found that the delay was "not unreasonable and that there was no purposeful postponement of the arraignment for the purpose of coercing a confession." The court also found that the tribal court's normal procedure was to arraign prisoners in the afternoon and that "the defendant was arraigned before the tribal magistrate at the first scheduled arraignment calendar subsequent to the defendant's arrest." The court found the delay reasonable and stated that the defendant was simply lodged overnight due to the unavailability of a magistrate. See United States v....