Jenkins v. State
| Docket Number | S23A0534 |
| Decision Date | 02 November 2023 |
| Parties | JENKINS v. THE STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
The question in this case is whether Larry Jenkins's unequivocal statement that he would not talk to law enforcement without a lawyer was a valid invocation of his Miranda[1] rights. Agreeing with the State, the trial court concluded that the statement came at a time that Jenkins was not being interrogated and at which no interrogation was imminent, and thus it was "anticipatory" and invalid under a line of precedent from several federal courts of appeals. We need not decide here whether that line of precedent is correct because the trial court erred by extending that precedent to the circumstances in this case. At the time that Jenkins invoked his Miranda rights, he (1) was in custody for the crimes at issue in this case, (2) had been given Miranda warnings, (3) had already been subjected to custodial interrogation by law enforcement on the way to the jail, and (4) was going through the booking process. Whether or not the booking process itself was custodial interrogation, the facts of this case show that a reasonable person in Jenkins's position would have believed that interrogation was at least imminent. Accordingly, his unequivocal invocation was valid, the State's failure to honor it rendered his custodial statements inadmissible, and the State has failed to show that the use of that inadmissible evidence was harmless. Accordingly, we reverse Jenkins's convictions; because the evidence against him was constitutionally sufficient, he may be retried.
Before his 1995 trial, Jenkins moved to suppress his confession and other evidence gathered therefrom; the trial court granted his motion. Even without that evidence, Jenkins was convicted and sentenced to death for a murder he committed when he was 17; we affirmed in 1998. In 2005, a habeas court vacated his death sentence under Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1) (2005) and granted a new trial on the basis of ineffective assistance of trial counsel; we affirmed in 2006. In 2014 the State, seeking to retry Jenkins, filed a "Motion to Admit into Evidence at Trial Defendant's Post-Arrest Statements to Law Enforcement Officers and Physical Evidence Discovered from Interrogation of the Defendant," which the trial court and parties treated as a motion to reconsider the previously granted motion to suppress.[2] The trial court determined that Jenkins's custodial statements (including a confession) were admissible because Jenkins had not validly invoked his right to counsel under Miranda. The court reasoned that 17-year-old Jenkins's invocation was "anticipatory" because, even though he was in custody, had been advised of his Miranda rights, and during booking by law enforcement unequivocally stated that he would not talk without the assistance of an attorney, Jenkins was merely going through the booking process, not being formally interrogated. After his confession was introduced against him at his second trial, Jenkins was convicted and this appeal ensued.
On appeal, Jenkins argues that the trial court lacked the authority to revisit the prior suppression order, and that even if it had such authority, the trial court erred in concluding that his invocation of his rights was ineffective because it was anticipatory. Because the trial court erred in concluding that the statements were admissible, we do not reach the issue of the trial court's authority to reconsider the previous ruling.[3] Even under the "no anticipatory invocation" rule relied on by the State (a rule that we have never adopted and express no view on today), a defendant can effectively invoke his Miranda rights if an interrogation is "imminent," and under the facts of this case detailed below, the State has not met its burden of showing that a suspect in Jenkins's position would not have reasonably believed an interrogation was imminent. We therefore reverse.
The evidence presented at Jenkins's 2014 retrial showed that, around 7:00 p.m. on January 8, 1993, Terry Ralston and her oldest son, Michael, left their home in Terry's 1991 white Chevy Lumina van to close one of the laundromats that Terry's parents owned in Jesup. In addition to cleaning the facility that evening, Terry was also scheduled to collect quarters from the machines. Around 10:00 p.m., when Terry and Michael had not returned home from the laundromat, Terry's father went to the laundromat to check on them, but they were not there. Later that night, Terry's husband contacted law enforcement to report that Terry and Michael were missing. Law enforcement began looking for Terry and Michael and the Chevy Lumina.
On the morning of January 9, two employees of a railroad company discovered two bodies - later identified as Terry and Michael - in a shallow ditch a short distance away from the railroad tracks. The employees immediately called law enforcement, and law enforcement officers from the Wayne County Sheriff's Department, the Jesup Police Department, the GBI, and the Department of Natural Resources arrived on the scene shortly thereafter.
The night before the bodies were found, between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m., a police officer had noticed a white van near the train tracks where the victims' bodies were found. The officer testified that the van he saw that night looked similar to Terry's Chevy Lumina van. During the late morning hours of January 9, police began looking for Terry's van. Officer Glenn Jackson and another police officer drove to an overpass area by the railroad tracks in anticipation of the van traveling in that direction. Shortly thereafter, Officer Jackson "observed the white van come over the hump of the railroad tracks and about halfway down around the curve" and come to a stop, at which point four "male subjects jumped out and started running in different directions." Officer Jackson pursued the driver of the van, who ran towards the adjacent railroad tracks, slid under a boxcar, and then escaped into the woods on the other side, where Officer Jackson lost sight of him.
Captain Doug Lewis with the Department of Natural Resources - who had been working alongside other law enforcement agencies to help secure the crime scene - testified that he also heard a radio call reporting that a white van had been seen in Jesup by the overpass and that law enforcement was requesting assistance for "some people that were fleeing" from the van and "running up the railroad tracks." Captain Lewis drove to that area and parked his vehicle. He did not see any of the suspects, but he walked around the area adjacent to the overpass and noticed a green backpack lying on the ground. Captain Lewis contacted a GBI agent to come and secure the backpack. GBI Agent Weyland Yeomans testified that he met Captain Lewis at the location of the backpack, and he seized the bag and its contents. Agent Yeomans testified that there was $142.50 in the bag, almost all of it in quarters. Agent Yeomans also found quarter wrappers in the bag, some of which had quarters inside of them, as well as a Kentucky Fried Chicken name badge with the name "David" on it.
While Officer Jackson was still monitoring the overpass area, Annie Ruth Mathis - a woman who lived nearby - approached him and advised that she had brought him a gun that her children and grandchildren had discovered near her house. Officer Jackson retrieved the gun and contacted GBI agents to inform them that he had received a gun that might be related to the crimes. Officer Jackson later testified that the gun was a Grendel handgun, but he was not certain of the caliber.
Mathis testified that she lived about one or two blocks away from the overpass. She was at home on January 9, and around lunchtime, she walked out onto her porch with her husband and her son because they heard an airplane flying over their house.[4] Mathis noted that the airplane was circling low over the area. Around the same time, Mathis saw Jenkins - whom she had known since he was a baby - walking down the street, and she saw him throw something "out of his hand." As Jenkins got closer to her house, a person inside the airplane screamed down for Mathis and her family to get back inside the house because "he" - referring to Jenkins - was "dangerous." Mathis said that Jenkins started "jogging" at that point and jogged "right in front of [her] house and jogged right on around the corner and on down the street." Mathis went around to her backyard, and a few minutes later, one of her grandchildren came running into the backyard and handed her a gun inside a "little black pouch thing." Mathis testified that her children and grandchildren had been playing outside in the street in front of her house when they found the gun. Mathis said she put the gun in her car, "took it up the road" to the railroad tracks where she had "seen the police[,]" and gave it to one of the officers.
Ken Mullis, a deputy with the Wayne County Sheriff's Department, testified that he had been part of the search for the missing Chevy Lumina van and the suspects on January 9. According to Deputy Mullis, he had been "listening to the radio traffic from the airplane" when he heard that the van had been located. He got into his patrol car and headed toward the overpass area where the van had stopped. As he was driving, he looked in his rearview mirror and saw someone running. Deputy Millis gave chase on foot and saw the individual trying to crawl under a trailer. Deputy Mullis apprehended the individual, later identified as Jenkins. Deputy Mullis testified that he read Jenkins his Miranda rights on the way to the patrol car, and he then transported Jenkins to the Wayne County Jail. While Jenkins was...
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