Bruce v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 13 July 2006
• Docket Number: No. 3:CR-05-318.,3:CR-05-318.
• Citation: 439 F.Supp.2d 364
• Parties: Murray Floyd BRUCE, Plaintiff v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania

Page 364

439 F.Supp.2d 364

Murray Floyd BRUCE, Plaintiff v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant.

No. 3:CR-05-318.

United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania.

July 13, 2006.

Douglas A. Clark, Peckville, PA, for Plaintiff.

Daryl Ford Bloom, U.S. Attorney's Office, Harrisburg, PA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM

VANASKIE, Chief Judge.

On August 17, 2005, the Grand Jury for this District returned a two-count indictment against Defendant Murray Floyd Bruce. (Dkt. Entry 1.) Mr. Bruce was charged with: (1) seeking to prevent and hamper his removal from the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1253(a)(1)(C); and (2) making false representations to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("BICE") regarding his citizenship in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2). It is the Government's contention that since the time of his initial entry into the United States on May 30, 1989, Mr. Bruce has falsely claimed to have been born in Bermuda in order to avoid being deported to Nigeria. In support of its case, the Government intends to introduce various statements made by Mr. Bruce, including a May 30, 1989 "record of sworn statement in affidavit form" made to U.S. immigration officials upon Bruce's arrival at the JFK Airport in New York City on a "transit without visa" status; an October 26, 1990 affidavit made by Mr. Bruce in connection with his assertion of unlawful detention; an August 31, 1991 affidavit made by Bruce in support of an application for judicial review; an affidavit of Mr. Bruce dated August 13, 2004, given to a BICE official while Bruce was serving a federal prison term on a bank fraud conviction; and an August 3, 2005 "record of sworn statement" made by an immigration officer while Bruce was held in custody by BICE pending removal from the United States as a convicted felon. Bruce has moved to suppress the 1989 statement made upon his arrival in the United States as well as the 2004 and 2005 statements made when he was imprisoned on the ground that they were the products of custodial interrogations undertaken without Miranda warnings. (Dkt. Entry 23.) An evidentiary hearing was held on December 14, 2005. For the reasons that follow, Defendant's motion will be denied as to all statements.

I. BACKGROUND

On May 30, 1989, a plane boarded by Defendant landed at JFK Airport in New York. Defendant was on "transit without visa" status, en route from Nigeria to Bermuda.¹ Upon arrival, Defendant was escorted from the airplane by officers of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") and taken to a secondary inspection area. Defendant was questioned by several officers at this inspection area without being given any Miranda warnings. The office in which the questioning occurred was locked from the outside, and Bruce was not free to leave. Defendant was asked questions about his name, citizenship, and the authenticity of his travel documents. After extended separate interrogations on these matters by several different officers, Bruce was informed that he would not be allowed to enter Bermuda with the travel documents he possessed and that he would be returned to Nigeria. Bruce responded to this news by stating that he would not return to Nigeria because he had just been deported from there and he feared for his safety if he were compelled to return. At that point, Bruce was requested to provide a written statement. As a result, Defendant signed a document titled, "Record of Sworn Statement in Affidavit Form." (Gov.'s Ex. 1.)

In this document, Bruce acknowledged that his statement concerned his "admissibility into the United States/transit without a visa." The statement included the following:

Q: What is your true and correct name, country of citizenship and date of birth?

A: FLOYD MURRAY BRUCE, Bermuda, 28-October, 1963.

Q: What authority issued you the Emergency Certificate which you presented for inspection to the U.S. Immigration Inspectors at JFK Airport in N.Y. City?

A: Federal Government of Nigeria at Nigerian Immigration HQ in the City of Ogja.

Q: Why was the Emergency Certificate issued to you by the Nigerian authorities?

A: I had no document to travel on.

Q: What happened to your travel documents.

A: Nigerian Immigration withdrew my British passport.

Q: Why was your British passport withdrawn by Nigerian Immigration?

A: Because I was not the genuine holder of the document and the document had been tampered with.

Q: In what way was the document tampered with?

A: The photograph was changed from the rightful holder's to my photograph.

The statement goes on to relate that Bruce had been arrested in Nigeria on drug trafficking charges; that he had been tortured there; and that Nigeria had issued him the travel document in question after he was unable to obtain appropriate documents from officials of the United Kingdom.

Following the completion of the statement, Bruce was transported to an INS detention center. He was not prosecuted for any offense at that time. He did, however, remain in INS custody until February of 1993.

It appears that he was detained by the INS because he refused to be removed to Nigeria and could not substantiate his claim to be a native of Bermuda. In an affidavit signed on October 26, 1990, Bruce stated that he had been deported from the United Kingdom to Nigeria in 1988 under the name of Joseph N. Ekwensi, which he averred was not his correct name. He reiterated that he was not a citizen of Nigeria, and that Nigeria deported him to Bermuda in 1989.

Bruce was released on supervision in February of 1993.² In January of 2003, he was sentenced to a prison term of 33 months on a plea of guilty to a charge of bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344. See United States v. Bruce, 396 F.3d 697 (6th Cir.2005), vacated in part, 405 F.3d 1034 (6th Cir.2005), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 466, 163 L.Ed.2d 354 (2005).³ On August 13, 2004, while incarcerated on the bank fraud conviction at FCI Fort Dix, New Jersey, Defendant signed a sworn statement regarding his "right to remain legally in the United States and [his] present status in the United States." (Gov.'s Ex. 13.) This statement, provided to a BICE officer, consists of handwritten responses to questions that had been typed on the form. The handwritten information, which Bruce contends was inserted by the. BICE officer, includes Defendant's name, place of birth, parents' names, and other information pertaining to his immigration status. Bruce admits signing the form. There is no dispute that Bruce was not given Miranda warnings in connection with the submission of this statement. Bruce, however, acknowledged that the statement was given freely and voluntarily.

Upon completion of his federal sentence, Bruce was taken into custody by BICE and detained at the county jail in Pike County, Pennsylvania. On August 3, 2005, while in detention at the Pike County Correctional Facility, Bruce was again interviewed by an immigration officer. Bruce voluntarily submitted to the interview, explaining that he wanted answers to questions that he had concerning his confinement. This interview occurred in an office in the prison. Once again, handwritten answers were inserted after typed questions. Bruce reiterated his assertions as to his place of birth, parents, and removal from the United Kingdom to Nigeria. (Gov.'s Ex. 16.) He also acknowledged that he had traveled to Nigeria on a fake passport. Miranda warnings were not made in connection with the solicitation of this statement, which Bruce also acknowledged was given freely and voluntarily.

II. DISCUSSION

Bruce contends that each of the statements should be excluded from evidence as a sanction for the failure of the government agents to provide Miranda warnings. It is well-settled than an individual is entitled to Miranda warnings where the government seeks to perform a custodial interrogation. See e.g., United States v. Walton, 10 F.3d 1024, 1026 (3d Cir.1993). Miranda warnings are required to protect a suspect's Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Thus, prior to asking any questions of a suspect in custody, law enforcement officers must inform him that he has the right to remain silent, that his statements may be used against him at trial, that he has the right to the presence of an attorney during questioning, and that if he cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for him. Any statement that is the product of un-warned custodial interrogation is subject to an exclusionary rule prohibiting its use at trial.

A person is subject to custodial interrogation when both the elements of custody and interrogation are satisfied. Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 300, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980). A person is in custody if, given the circumstances surrounding the interrogation, "a reasonable person, would have felt that he or she was not at liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave." Thompson v. Keohane, 516 U.S. 99, 112, 116 S.Ct. 457, 133 L.Ed.2d 383 (1995); accord United States v. Mesa, 638 F.2d 582, 587 (3d Cir.1980.) Interrogation, for Miranda purposes, refers to express questioning or its "functional equivalent." Innis, 446 U.S. at 300-01, 100 S.Ct. 1682.

A. The Statement Taken upon Entry to the United States on May 30, 1989

Bruce's challenge to the statements he made when he arrived in the United States on a transit without visa status presumes the applicability of Miranda to any questioning of his right to that status if he was "in custody." The circumstances surrounding the questioning related by Bruce at the evidentiary hearing certainly suggest that he was indeed "in custody" when question by immigration officials. The application of the Miranda rule to the interrogation of aliens at the border, however, is not as clear as Bruce presumes. As one court has pithily explained:

Miranda ... is a mismatch for the...