Sanchez v. People

• Decision Date: 30 June 2014
• Docket Number: Supreme Court Case No. 11SC215
• Citation: 329 P.3d 253
• Parties: Ricardo Jaime SANCHEZ, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

329 P.3d 253

Ricardo Jaime SANCHEZ, Petitioner,

v.The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent

Supreme Court Case No. 11SC215

Supreme Court of Colorado.

June 30, 2014

Certiorari to the Colorado Court of Appeals, Court of Appeals Case No. 08CA630.

Attorneys for Petitioner: Douglas K. Wilson, Public Defender, Joseph P. Hough, Deputy Public Defender, Denver, Colorado.

Attorneys for Respondent: John W. Suthers, Attorney General, Emmy A. Langley, Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado.

En Banc.

JUSTICE COATS delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶ 1 Sanchez petitioned for review of the court of appeals' judgment in People v. Sanchez, No. 08CA630, 2011 WL 486489 (Colo.App. Feb. 10, 2011) (not published pursuant to C.A.R. 35(f)), which affirmed his conviction of first degree murder. Among other things, the defendant assigned error to the district court's denial of his motion to suppress, as a violation of his Miranda rights, statements he made to the New Mexico police shortly after his arrest. In particular, he objected that he was not advised and did not understand that he would not ultimately be obligated to pay for an appointed attorney. The court of appeals rejected the defendant's assignment of error, concluding that the advisement he received concerning his right to appointed counsel was sufficient to convey to him that if he could not afford one, an attorney would be provided free of charge.

¶ 2 Because Miranda v. Arizona does not require that a suspect be advised of or understand that he will not ultimately bear any liability for the cost of an attorney appointed to assist him during custodial interrogation; and because the defendant was adequately advised and understood that if he requested the assistance of an attorney to consult with him and be present during custodial interrogation, but could not afford one, one would nevertheless be appointed for that purpose, the judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed.

I.

¶ 3 Following his apprehension and arrest in New Mexico, Ricardo Sanchez was charged with first degree murder for the September 20, 2006 shooting of a coworker ten to fifteen times at close range. At trial, he asserted self-defense but was nevertheless convicted of first degree murder. The district court subsequently sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

¶ 4 Prior to trial, the defendant moved to suppress the statements he made to the New Mexico police following his arrest. In those statements, he confessed to the shooting and admitted that he purchased a gun and bullets to kill the victim, who had been taunting and harassing him and who, the day before the murder, threatened to kill him and rape his wife. The defendant alleged that his statements should be suppressed because he was not adequately advised according to Miranda v. Arizona and did not understand that before speaking to the police, he was entitled to the services of an attorney, free of charge.

¶ 5 At the suppression hearing, the officer who interrogated the defendant testified that he conducted an extensive interview in Spanish, the defendant's only, and the officer's first, language. The officer testified that after confirming the defendant's ability to read Spanish, he gave the defendant a written advisement and waiver of rights form in Spanish. He also testified that the defendant read the form, initialed after each line, and signed the waiver portion.

¶ 6 In his testimony, the officer translated the Spanish Miranda form, indicating that it informed the defendant: that he had the right to remain silent; that anything he said could be used against him in court; that he had the right to consult with an attorney before any questions were asked; that if he chose to answer questions without an attorney present, he had the right to stop answering questions whenever he wanted; and that he had the right to stop answering questions until he had an attorney present. The officer also translated the waiver section of the form as providing, in part, “I am willing to give a statement and answer questions. I do not want a lawyer present at this time.” The officer further testified that in response to a question, he informed the defendant that “if he could not afford [an attorney], one would be appointed for him.”

¶ 7 The officer also reviewed the relevant portion of the transcript of his recorded conversation with the defendant, which had been translated by a third-party translator as follows:

Defendant: But that, it is not very necessary a lawyer because a lawyer is going to want money, true? Decide a lawyer, because the lawyer is going to want money, true?

Officer: Well, the thing is yes, they are, if you don't have the means of hiring a lawyer one would be assigned, but the thing is, where we are, we are going to talk soon.

Defendant: It is better like this, true?

Officer: We[,] I do not say what is better. If you are ready, I ...

Defendant: Sure, why go around it, true, if finally, what was done, was done.¹

¶ 8 The district court denied the defendant's motion to suppress his statements, concluding, as pertinent here, both that the officer “adequately informed [the defendant] that even though lawyers are expensive, if he couldn't afford to hire one, one would be assigned to him,” and that the defendant's Miranda waiver was valid. The district court specifically found that the defendant did not seem confused about the officer's explanation concerning his right to the assistance of a court-appointed attorney and that he did not ask any further questions. The court also found that the defendant volunteered information and had no apparent reluctance in giving a full account of the events.

¶ 9 Following his conviction, the defendant appealed, challenging, among other things, this suppression ruling. With one member of the panel dissenting, the court of appeals concluded that the record supported the findings and conclusions of the district court. More specifically, the court of appeals found that the officer's explanation concerning the appointment of an attorney, including the phrase, “if you don't have the means,” adequately conveyed to the defendant that an attorney would be provided free of charge if he could not afford one.

¶ 10 The defendant petitioned for a writ of certiorari.

II.

¶ 11 There are two federal constitutional bases for the requirement that a confession be voluntary in order to be admitted into evidence: the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428, 433, 120 S.Ct. 2326, 147 L.Ed.2d 405 (2000). The due process or “voluntariness” test takes into consideration the totality of all the surrounding circumstances—both the characteristics of the accused and the details of the interrogation—to determine whether the accused's will was actually overborne by coercive police conduct. Id. at 434, 120 S.Ct. 2326; People v. Valdez, 969 P.2d 208, 211 (Colo.1998). However, because the inherently coercive nature of custodial police interrogation heightens the risk that an individual will not be accorded his privilege under the Fifth Amendment, the Supreme Court has also laid down concrete procedural safeguards governing the admissibility of statements given during custodial interrogation. SeeMiranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 467–79, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Statements made during custodial police interrogation are admissible in the prosecution's case in chief only if the person making them has already been properly advised concerning his right to remain silent and his right to have a lawyer present, and if he has made a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent waiver of those rights. Seeid. at 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602.

¶ 12 In Miranda, the Court held that unless other fully effective means were adopted to notify the person of his right of silence and to assure that the exercise of the right would be scrupulously honored, certain specific measures would be required. Id. at 478–79, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Specifically, the measures adopted by the Court for this purpose were that prior to any custodial interrogation, a suspect must be warned that he has the right to remain silent; that anything he says can be used against him in a court of law; that he has the right to the presence of an attorney, and that if he cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed for him prior to any questioning if he so desires. Id. at 479, 86 S.Ct. 1602. It further specified that opportunities to exercise these rights must be afforded to the suspect throughout the interrogation. Id. Rather than requiring some “talismanic incantation,” however, the Court made clear that the appropriate inquiry concerning the adequacy of such advisements would simply be whether these rights had been reasonably conveyed to the suspect. Duckworth v. Eagan, 492 U.S. 195, 203, 109 S.Ct. 2875, 106 L.Ed.2d 166 (1989) (“The inquiry is simply whether the warnings reasonably ‘conve[y] to [a suspect] his rights as required by Miranda.’ ”) (quoting California v. Prysock, 453 U.S. 355, 361, 101 S.Ct. 2806, 69 L.Ed.2d 696 (1981)); Prysock, 453 U.S. at 359, 101 S.Ct. 2806 ( “Miranda itself indicated that no talismanic incantation was required to satisfy its strictures.”).

¶ 13 While the Supreme Court in Miranda referred to the prosecution's obligation to demonstrate the adequacy of these warnings and their waiver as a “heavy burden,” 384 U.S. at 475, 86 S.Ct. 1602, it has subsequently made clear that in terms of a burden of proof it intended by this language no more than the preponderance-of-the-evidence burden required to establish the voluntariness of a statement itself, Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 168–69, 107 S.Ct. 515, 93 L.Ed.2d 473 (1986). In addition to the voluntariness of the waiver of Miranda rights, however, the Court required, as with constitutional trial rights generally, that in order to be effective, any waiver of the...