U.S. v. D.F., 94-2900

• Decision Date: 12 May 1997
• Docket Number: No. 94-2900,94-2900
• Citation: 115 F.3d 413
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. D.F., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 413

115 F.3d 413

65 USLW 2831

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. D.F., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 94-2900.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 11, 1996.

Decided May 12, 1997. ^*

Stephen A. Ingraham, argued, Office of the United States Attorney, Milwaukee, WI for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Dean A. Strang, argued, Fitzgerald & Strang, Milwaukee, WI, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges, and MILLER, District Judge. ^**

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

This case is before the court on remand from the Supreme Court of the United States. In our earlier opinion, United States v. D.F., 63 F.3d 671 (7th Cir.1995) ("D.F.-I"), vacated, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 1872, 135 L.Ed.2d 169 (1996), we affirmed the judgment of the district court suppressing certain statements of the defendant. The district court had ruled that those statements had been coerced in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. After considering the petition for writ of certiorari filed by the Government, the Supreme Court directed that we reconsider our earlier decision in light of its intervening holding in Ornelas v. United States, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996).

Upon receiving the direction of the Supreme Court, we considered the statements of the parties filed pursuant to Circuit Rule 54. Because of the importance of the question, we also set the case for reargument and heard the helpful arguments of counsel for both parties. We shall assume familiarity with our earlier opinion and proceed directly to the task assigned us by the Supreme Court. First we shall discuss the Supreme Court's holding in Ornelas. Then we shall examine the precedent of this circuit governing the standard of review in assessing the voluntariness of a confession. On the basis of that analysis, we shall then determine whether the Supreme Court's decision requires an adjustment in the governing law of this circuit. At that point, we shall turn to the facts of the case before us.

I

A.

In Ornelas, the Supreme Court addressed the appropriate standard of appellate review for the "reasonable suspicion" and "probable cause" standards employed in determining the legality of searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment. The Court began its analysis by noting that both of these standards are "commonsense, nontechnical conceptions that deal with 'the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.' " Id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1661 (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 231, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328-29, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983) (quoting in turn Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1311, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949))). Standards of this sort, continued the Court, cannot be reduced to a neat set of legal rules or be considered "finely-tuned standards." Id. They are fluid concepts that take their substantive content from the particular contexts in which the standards are being assessed. Id.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court held that this court had erred in applying a deferential standard of review to the ultimate question of whether these standards had been met. Rather, held the Supreme Court, the analytical steps necessary in evaluating the ultimate judicial decision as to the existence of probable cause or reasonable suspicion must be unbundled. "The principal components of a determination of reasonable suspicion or probable cause will be the events which occurred leading up to the stop or search, and then the decision whether these historical facts, viewed from the standpoint of an objectively reasonable police officer, amount to reasonable suspicion or to probable cause." Id. at ---- - ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1661-62. The first part of such an analysis, noted the Court, involves only a determination of historical facts, but the second is a mixed question of law and fact:

[T]he historical facts are admitted or established, the rule of law is undisputed, and the issue is whether the facts satisfy the [relevant] statutory [or constitutional] standard, or to put it in another way, whether the rule of law as applied to the established facts is or is not violated.

--- U.S. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1662 (quoting Pullman-Standard v. Swint, 456 U.S. 273, 289 n. 19, 102 S.Ct. 1781, 1790 n. 19, 72 L.Ed.2d 66 (1982)).

In short, although holding that a deferential standard of review was appropriate with respect to the trial court's determination of the underlying historical facts, the Supreme Court held that the ultimate question of whether those facts satisfy the relevant standard was a mixed question of fact and law that ought to be subject to independent appellate review. The Court noted that this approach was consistent with its earlier precedent and that "[a] policy of sweeping deference would permit, '[i]n the absence of any significant difference in the facts,' the Fourth Amendment's incidence [to] tur[n] on whether different trial judges draw general conclusions that the facts are sufficient or insufficient to constitute probable cause." Id. (quoting Brinegar, 338 U.S. at 171, 69 S.Ct. at 1308-09). Such varied results, continued the Supreme Court, "would be inconsistent with the idea of a unitary system of law." Id. Moreover, because "the legal rules for probable cause and reasonable suspicion acquire content only through application," independent review is "necessary if appellate courts are to maintain control of, and to clarify, legal principles." ¹ Id. De novo review, continued the Court, "tends to unify the precedent" and "provid[es] law enforcement officers with a defined set of rules which, in most instances, makes it possible to reach a correct determination beforehand as to whether an invasion of privacy is justified in the interest of law enforcement." Id. (internal quotations and citations omitted).

The Court acknowledged that, "because the mosaic which is analyzed for a reasonable-suspicion or probable-cause inquiry is multi-faceted, 'one determination will seldom be useful "precedent" for another.' " Id. (quoting Gates, 462 U.S. at 238 n. 11, 103 S.Ct. at 2332 n. 11). Nevertheless, it continued, similar factual circumstances in other cases are indeed a very helpful guide in determining whether reasonable cause or reasonable suspicion or probable cause existed. " [E]ven where one case may not squarely control another one, the two decisions when viewed together may usefully add to the body of law on the subject." Id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1663.

Because of these considerations of uniformity of decision, and of the predictability and ease of administration that would follow from such uniformity of decision, the Court concluded that the ultimate determinations of reasonable suspicion and probable cause should be reviewed de novo on appeal. It emphasized, however, that a reviewing court should "take care both to review findings of historical fact only for clear error and to give due weight to inferences drawn from those facts by resident judges and local law enforcement officers." Id. In this regard, the Court noted that a "trial judge views the facts of a particular case in light of the distinctive features and events of the community" in which that judge sits. Id. A police officer also views the facts of a case through the lens of his police experience and expertise. An appeals court, emphasized the Supreme Court, "should give due weight to a trial court's finding that an officer was credible and the inference was reasonable." Id.

B.

Writing before the Supreme Court's decision in Ornelas, this court had held in United States v. Baldwin, 60 F.3d 363 (7th Cir.1995), vacated, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 1873, 135 L.Ed.2d 169 (1996), that an appellate court ought to assess the voluntariness of a confession under the deferential abuse of discretion standard. Noting that its holding was motivated in substantial part by decisions of the Supreme Court that had employed a deferential standard of review with respect to mixed questions of fact and law, ² the court observed that this circuit had "moved decisively," id. at 365, toward the clear error standard for the appellate review of mixed questions of fact and law. ³ In the court's view, the voluntariness of a confession posed no greater need for de novo review than the other situations governed by deferential review.

This court in Baldwin enumerated several reasons for the use of a deferential standard of review with respect to the voluntariness of a confession. First, it noted that the trial court is closer to the historical facts of the case and more practiced than appellate judges in assessing the significance of those facts. The court also believed that uniformity on such a fact-specific issue was possible only with respect to the governing legal standard. In this regard, the court perceived no difference between the fact-specific inquiry undertaken in other areas and the fact-specific inquiry with respect to the voluntariness of confessions. The court specifically relied upon its earlier holdings that issues of probable cause, waiver of Miranda rights and consent to search were all subject to a deferential standard of review in this circuit.

The advent of Ornelas obviously requires, as the Supreme Court has directed, a re-examination of our holding in Baldwin. One of the principal analogies upon which Baldwin relied, the determination of probable cause, is now governed, ultimately, by a de novo standard of review under the very holding of Ornelas. We now proceed to undertake that reassessment.

C.

We believe that a comparison of the rationales of the Supreme Court's holding in Ornelas and this court's earlier holding in Baldwin makes clear that Ornelas requires a course adjustment on our part. Nevertheless, it is important to note that there is important common ground between the two decisions. The Supreme Court stressed in Ornelas...