State v. Bainbridge

• Decision Date: 05 February 1990
• Docket Number: No. 16808,16808
• Citation: 117 Idaho 245,787 P.2d 231
• Parties: The STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Randall W. BAINBRIDGE, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

Page 231

787 P.2d 231

117 Idaho 245

The STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Randall W. BAINBRIDGE, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 16808.

Supreme Court of Idaho.

Feb. 5, 1990.

[117 Idaho 246] Stewart A. Morris, Boise, for defendant-appellant.

Jim Jones, Atty. Gen., Lynn E. Thomas, Sol. Gen., argued, Boise, for plaintiff-respondent.

McDEVITT, Justice.

This is a rehearing of an appeal brought by Randall Bainbridge from his conviction for first degree murder following a retrial of the case pursuant to State v. Bainbridge, 108 Idaho 273, 698 P.2d 335 (1985). In State v. Bainbridge, id., this Court reversed the first conviction and remanded for a new trial with instructions concerning hypnotically refreshed testimony.

The facts of this case are set forth in State v. Bainbridge, id., and State v. Sivak, 112 Idaho 197, 731 P.2d 192 (1986). In summary, Bainbridge and Sivak were convicted of the murder of a service station attendant, Dixie Wilson. Sivak was sentenced to death. Bainbridge received a fixed life sentence.

I. FOURTH AMENDMENT SEIZURES

Bainbridge claims that statements he made to police officers, in the Barrister Station interrogation room, should have been suppressed because they were made pursuant to an illegal seizure that violated his rights under Article I, § 17 of the Idaho Constitution, and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, made applicable to the individual states through the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

When reviewing "seizure" issues, we defer to the trial court's factual findings, unless they are clearly erroneous. We freely review, de novo, the trial court's legal determination of whether or not an illegal seizure occurred. United States Constitution, Amendment IV; State v. Heinen, 114 Idaho 656, 759 P.2d 947 (1988). Since Bainbridge is contesting the legality of the seizure, we will review this issue de novo.

The Fourth Amendment is virtually identical to Article 1, § 17 of the Idaho Constitution which reads:

§ 17. Unreasonable searches and seizures prohibited.--The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue without probable cause shown by affidavit, particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized.

In this case, where no warrant was issued, the proper analysis for determining whether there has been an illegal seizure is to determine:

A. Whether the police conduct in question does, in fact constitute a seizure, and if it does;

B. Whether the seizure falls within one of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement. See Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979); State v. Johnson, 110 Idaho 516, 716 P.2d 1288 (1986).

C. Once it has been determined that there is a constitutionally prohibited seizure, evidence or information acquired as a result of the seizure will be excluded unless the causal connection between the seizure and the acquisition has been broken. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963); United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 reh. denied 448 U.S. 908, 100 S.Ct. 3051, 65 L.Ed.2d 1138 (1980); Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983).

A. WHETHER THE POLICE SEIZED BAINBRIDGE

The State argues that this Court's decision in Bainbridge 1 (that Bainbridge spoke to the police voluntarily) precludes any possible Fourth Amendment violation.

United States Supreme Court decisions hold that a seizure occurs "only if, in view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave." United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1877, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980); See also, Florida v. Royer, 460 The purpose of the Fourth Amendment and Article 1, § 17 of the Idaho Constitution is to protect a person's legitimate expectation of privacy. See State v. Johnson, 110 Idaho 516, 716 P.2d 1288 (1986).

[117 Idaho 248] U.S. 491, 502, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1326, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983); Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979).

Upon making contact with Bainbridge, the officers promptly informed him of his Miranda rights. He stated that he did not want to talk to them until he had an opportunity to consult with his parole officer, but that he did not have a phone. One of the officers "suggested" that the three of them drive to the station house and make the call.

The record is clear that while they were in Bainbridge's house, the officers controlled all ingress and egress. One of the officers followed Bainbridge's spouse into the kitchen and controlled access to the rear door. The other stationed himself next to the front door in the living room where Bainbridge was located.

At this point no reasonable person would have thought they were free to leave. The officers' "suggestion" not only reflected a desire for immediate action, but it directed the course of action to be taken. The fact that Bainbridge's spouse told him he did not have to go is inconsequential. She was not the one being taken. She was not in his position.

Shortly after the officers and Bainbridge got into the car, they informed him that they were not going to take him to the Garden City station, but were taking him to the Barrister Station. They did not seek his approval and they did not inform him that he could refuse to go. At this point, Bainbridge was clearly seized and in police custody. The officers had Bainbridge in the squad car and were making unilateral decisions about where they were taking him.

When they arrived at the Barrister Station, the officers immediately took Bainbridge to an interrogation room. One of the officers left to call the parole officer for Bainbridge. The other stayed in the interrogation room. He informed Bainbridge of his Miranda rights and asked him questions. Bainbridge said that he wanted to talk to his parole officer. The detectives gave him a form explaining his Miranda Rights. He signed the waiver portion of that form. The officer continued to ask him questions to which Bainbridge responded. There can be no doubt that Bainbridge's "seizure" was dramatically intensified in the Barrister Station. No reasonable person would feel free to leave under those circumstances.

In Justice White's dissent to the majority opinion in U.S. v. Mendenhall, joined by Brennan, Marshall and Stevens, he wrote:

Whatever doubt there may be concerning whether Ms. Mendenhall's Fourth Amendment interests were implicated during the initial stages of her confrontation with the DEA agents, she undoubtedly was "seized" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when the agents escorted her from the public area of the terminal to the DEA office for questioning and a strip-search of her person. In Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979), we held that a person who accompanied police officers to a police station for purposes of interrogation undoubtedly was "seized in the Fourth Amendment sense," even though "he was not told he was under arrest." Id. at 207, 203, 99 S.Ct. at 2253, 2251. We found it significant that the suspect was taken to a police station, "was never informed that he was 'free to go,' " and "would have been physically restrained if he had refused to accompany the officers or had tried to escape their custody." Id. at 212, 99 S.Ct. at 2256. [ ¹]

Mendenhall, 100 S.Ct. at 1887.

The United States Supreme Court has consistently held that a confession obtained In each of the above cases the Supreme Court held that even if the statements were voluntary under the Fifth Amendment and Miranda, the Fourth Amendment issue would remain. In short, the causal connection between an illegal seizure and statements made to the police is not broken by a voluntary waiver of the Fifth Amendment alone.

[117 Idaho 249] during a custodial interrogation that follows an illegal seizure should be excluded regardless of whether the speaker's Fifth or Sixth Amendment rights were violated, and there is but one exception: that is when 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." Taylor v. Alabama, 457 U.S. 687, 690, 102 S.Ct. 2664, 2667, 73 L.Ed.2d 314 (1982); See also, Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 599-602, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2259-61, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975); Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 204, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2252 (1979).

B. WHETHER BAINBRIDGE'S STATEMENTS SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXCLUDED AT TRIAL

Evidence or information acquired as a result of a constitutionally impermissible seizure will be excluded unless the causal connection between the seizure and the acquisition has been broken. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 488, 83 S.Ct. 407, 417 (1963). In further explanation of this rule, the Wong Sun court stated:

We need not hold that all evidence is "fruit of the poisonous tree" simply because it would not have come to light but for 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."

Id.

In explaining why a voluntary waiver of Fifth Amendment and Miranda rights does not cure an illegal seizure, the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Illinois stated:

If Miranda warnings, by themselves, were held to attenuate the taint of an unconstitutional arrest, regardless of how wanton and purposeful the Fourth Amendment violation, the effect of the exclusionary rule would be substantially...