U.S. v. Glen-Archila, GLEN-ARCHIL

Decision Date04 June 1982
Docket NumberNo. 80-5395,D,GLEN-ARCHIL,80-5395
Citation677 F.2d 809
Parties10 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1236 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Homeroudley Astor May-Mitchell, Defendants-Appellants.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Archibald J. Thomas, III, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Jacksonville, Fla., for Glen-Archila.

Philip Carlton, Jr., Thomas A. Wills, Miami, Fla., for May-Mitchell.

Ernst D. Mueller, Asst. U. S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before FAY, JOHNSON and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges.

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge:

Dudley May-Mitchell and Homero Glen-Archila, crew members of a ship on which the Coast Guard found a cargo of marijuana during a stop and search in international waters off the Florida coast, appeal their convictions for violations of this country's drug laws. We affirm.

I. FACTS

We recite these facts in the light most favorable to the government. See Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942).

In 1979 a Coast Guard cutter came upon the British ship CAYMAN MAN twenty miles from St. Augustine. Boatswain's Mate James Caldwell hailed the ship. Appellant May-Mitchell appeared. He stated that the ship was losing power, that he could not start her engines, and that her captain was due to return with repair parts. He declined an offer of assistance. The cutter backed off but stayed near the ship overnight and approached within about six feet of her the next day. Caldwell again talked to May-Mitchell who stated that the ship's captain would return that afternoon and that he needed no aid. Caldwell, while talking to May-Mitchell, detected a strong odor of marijuana coming from the ship. 1

The Coast Guard, acting through the State Department, received permission from the British Shipping Commission to board the ship and seize samples of evidence. The Commission, however, refused to allow the Coast Guard to seize the ship. 2 Armed Coast Guardsmen boarded the ship and found marijuana in the hold. Caldwell told May-Mitchell that the Coast Guard's boarding authority was limited and that none of the crew members were under arrest. He noted, however, that, if May-Mitchell consented, the Coast Guard would tow the vessel into port. May-Mitchell discussed the matter with his crew. With the seas heavy, the weather worsening, and the sun having set, May-Mitchell stated in writing that he would like to have the CAYMAN MAN towed into port despite the knowledge that he would be arrested once within the waters of the United States.

After a test proved that the ship's cargo was marijuana, Caldwell told May-Mitchell of the result and of his estimate that ten to fifteen tons were on board. May-Mitchell stated that 30,000 pounds of marijuana were on the ship. 3 Caldwell later mentioned to May-Mitchell that it was too bad that the captain was not on board and that all of this was happening to him, prompting May-Mitchell to respond that, if the captain did not return, he had been told to make two drops and then go to Nassau in the Bahamas.

May-Mitchell and Glen-Archila, a crew member, were arrested soon after the CAYMAN MAN was towed to a Coast Guard station. The crew members were told to put their personal possessions in plastic bags and to take the bags with them as they left the ship. As the crew members were being processed, law enforcement officials went through the bags, taking, among other things, a navigation book from May-Mitchell's bag and an electrician's certificate from Glen-Archila's bag. During interrogation by an immigration officer, and before being read his Miranda rights, Glen-Archila gave his home address in Colombia.

The crew of the CAYMAN MAN, excepting one sailor, was put on trial. The jury convicted May-Mitchell and Glen-Archila of conspiracy to import marijuana into the United States in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 963. They appeal.

II. AUTHORITY TO STOP AND SEARCH

Appellants contend that the United States had no jurisdiction over the CAYMAN MAN, a foreign ship in international waters. 4 Without such jurisdiction, they assert, the Coast Guard had no authority to stop and board the ship, 5 and all searches subsequent to the boarding must therefore be suppressed as unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. 6

We reject this contention. In United States v. Williams, 617 F.2d 1063, 1076 (1980) (en banc), the former Fifth Circuit held that the Coast Guard has authority under 14 U.S.C.A. § 89(a) to stop a foreign vessel on the high seas if there exists a reasonable suspicion that the vessel is engaged in smuggling contraband into the United States. This statute, the Court continued, does not violate the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 1083-84. The requisite reasonable suspicion for the stop exists in this case. Boatswain's Mate Caldwell detected the odor of marijuana coming from the CAYMAN MAN; detection of that odor has been held to provide not merely reasonable suspicion but probable cause for a stop. 7 United States v. Erwin, 602 F.2d 1183, 1184 (5th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1071, 100 S.Ct. 1014, 62 L.Ed.2d 752 (1980). Appellants assert, however, that, even if it was reasonable to suspect that marijuana was on the ship, there was no reasonable suspicion regarding a violation of this country's laws. As they note, the law of the United States at the time of the seizure 8 required an intent to import marijuana into the United States. There was, they aver, no indication that the marijuana on the ship was destined for the United States. We disagree. The presence of the CAYMAN MAN only 20 miles from the Florida coast is an adequate basis for a reasonable suspicion of intent to import marijuana into this country. 9 See United States v. Ricardo, 619 F.2d 1124, 1128 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1063, 101 S.Ct. 789, 66 L.Ed.2d 607 (1980). 10 There was no Fourth Amendment violation. 11

III. MIRANDA ISSUES
A. May-Mitchell's Statements

The district court, adopting the magistrate's report, found that May-Mitchell spontaneously and voluntarily stated that his ship carried 30,000 pounds of marijuana and that he was to make two drops before proceeding to the Bahamas. Our duty is to make an "independent evaluation" of this finding. Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 398, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 2416, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978); see also Davis v. North Carolina, 384 U.S. 737, 741-42, 86 S.Ct. 1761, 1764, 16 L.Ed.2d 895 (1966). If we uphold the finding, the statements are, as the district court concluded, admissible despite the absence of Miranda warnings. 12 See, e.g., United States v. Sabin, 526 F.2d 857, 859 (5th Cir. 1976). 13 May-Mitchell seeks to have us rule the statements inadmissible. Though admitting that they were not the product of direct interrogation, he argues that the statements were not spontaneous because they were the result of the functional equivalent of interrogation. 14

The Supreme Court, as May-Mitchell notes, has stated that "the definition of interrogation can extend ... to words or actions on the part of police officers that they should have known were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response." Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 302, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1690, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980) (emphasis in original). The exceptionally coercive atmosphere surrounding the seizure of the ship, May-Mitchell contends, made the situation one of "functional interrogation." He is incorrect. First, nothing in the record indicates any unusual degree of force during the seizure. 15 If we were to hold as May-Mitchell desires, almost any police arrest or seizure also would be so coercive as to transform a situation into one of functional interrogation. We decline to extend the notion of interrogation in so expansive a fashion. Moreover, May-Mitchell has shown no link between the coercion and his statements. However coercive the seizure was, it is evident that the Coast Guard neither intended it to cause incriminating statements nor should have known that it would cause such statements. 16

B. Glen-Archila's Statements

While being interviewed by an immigration official, and before receiving Miranda warnings, Glen-Archila gave his home address in Colombia, South America. At trial the government used the address he gave, which showed that he lived near May-Mitchell, as evidence that he was a member of a conspiracy to import the marijuana on the CAYMAN MAN into the United States. That statement, he argues, should not have been admitted during trial. 17 The government counters that such a routine biographical question does not require Miranda warnings.

The former Fifth Circuit has indicated that such warnings are indeed not necessary for such routine interrogation, even if custodial, if not intended to produce incriminating responses. In United States v. Menichino, 497 F.2d 935 (5th Cir. 1974), the defendant had been read Miranda warnings and sought to telephone an attorney. He was told that he could do so after booking, a process that included being asked to provide his name and address. During booking defendant volunteered an incriminating statement. In holding the statement admissible, the Court discussed the booking procedure: "The interrogation appears to have been a straightforward attempt to secure biographical data necessary to complete booking, and the questions asked did not relate, even tangentially, to criminal activity. (United States v.) McDaniel (, 463 F.2d 129 (5th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 413 U.S. 919, 93 S.Ct. 3046, 37 L.Ed.2d 1041 (1973) ) suggests that such an inquiry is permissible, a suggestion we endorse here." Menichino, supra, 497 F.2d at 941. The Court came to a similar conclusion in United States v. Henry, 604 F.2d 908, 915 (1979), ruling that immigration officials need not give Miranda warnings to a person entering the United States unless an interrogation becomes custodial and information is sought for use...

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