United States v. Duke

Decision Date23 April 1969
Docket NumberNo. 12414.,12414.
Citation409 F.2d 669
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. James Buchanan DUKE, Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Arthur Vann, Durham, N.C., for appellant.

William H. Murdock, U. S. Atty. (H. Marshall Simpson, Asst. U. S. Atty., on brief), for appellee.

Before HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge, and SOBELOFF and WINTER, Circuit Judges.

HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge:

A number of questions are presented by this appeal from a conviction of bank robbery.

We need not detail all of the evidence supporting the verdict. Some of it was circumstantial and much of it was dependent upon the defendant's own admissions. Collectively, it is more than sufficient to support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Complaint, however, is made as to the admission of the defendant's statements to FBI agents on the afternoon of the robbery and on the following afternoon. While the giving of Miranda warnings is conceded, the claim is made that the agents took insufficient time to explain to the defendant the true meaning of the warnings and to permit their underlying meaning to sink in.

The defendant was picked up by a local law enforcement official while walking along an unpaved rural road in shirt sleeves on an afternoon in late fall, a few hours after the robbery of the bank. It was not far from where the getaway car had been abandoned and in the same area where the next day the money obtained in the robbery, together with a pistol, which the defendant admitted was apparently his, was found. The defendant's trousers and other clothing gave evidence that he had been traveling afoot through the woods and thickets.

He was carried to the emporium of a rural mortician where he was interviewed by FBI agents. Admittedly they gave him Miranda warnings and he signed an appropriate waiver before the questioning began. He was apparently cooperative, however, and told the agents in lively detail of his claimed amorous activities that morning and early afternoon, and, at his insistence, accompanied the agents as they attempted to verify his story.

There then, of course, was no basis for preferring charges against the defendant, and he was released at Durham, North Carolina, where he lived.

The next day after the money and the pistol had been found in a tin can, the defendant was requested by telephone to stop by the offices of the FBI in Durham. He did so, and when he came in he was again given the Miranda warnings and again he executed an appropriate waiver. Informed of the discovery of the money and the pistol, however, he substantially changed his story and gave partially incriminating statements, including ownership of the pistol, which were used against him at the trial.

Even if the questioning of the defendant on each occasion be regarded as custodial interrogation, there was full compliance with Miranda requirements.1 The defendant was not ignorant nor under any incapacity. He had been to college. After giving the warnings and receiving the defendant's acknowledgments, the FBI agents were under no duty to refrain from listening to or talking to an apparently willing and cooperative witness or suspect. Miranda does not require law enforcement officials to insist upon or to suggest the refusal of cooperation. As long as the suspect is clearly told and clearly understands that he need not talk, that he may consult a lawyer before deciding whether or not to talk, and that he may have one present when he talks, if he decides to talk, all of the requirements of Miranda are met.

Complaint is also made that the defendant was not carried before the Commissioner on the afternoon of the robbery but, as we have observed, there was...

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  • U.S. v. Peterson
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit
    • August 19, 1975
    ...had entered through the front door of his home, rather than through the back door as originally planned.7 United States v. Duke (4th Cir. 1969) 409 F.2d 669, 671, Cert. denied 397 U.S. 1062, 90 S.Ct. 1497, 25 L.Ed.2d 683 (1970); United States v. Lester (6th Cir. 1966) 363 F.2d 68, 72, Cert.......
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    • September 1, 1982
    ...378 A.2d 1338 (1977); Bryant v. State, 207 Md. 565, 115 A.2d 502 (1955); Handy v. State, 101 Md. 39, 60 A. 452 (1905); United States v. Duke, 409 F.2d 669 (4th Cir.1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1062, 90 S.Ct. 1497, 25 L.Ed.2d 683 (1970) (defendant has no constitutional right to counsel-cond......
  • United States v. Anderson
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Maryland
    • November 21, 1973
    ...abettor although no other principal was named. See also Meredith v. United States, 238 F.2d 535 (4th Cir. 1956). In United States v. Duke, 409 F.2d 669 (4th Cir. 1969), the Fourth Circuit upheld a conviction as aider and abettor although the indictment only named the defendant as a principa......
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    • March 8, 1990
    ...v. Taylor, 464 F.2d 240, 241 n. 1 (2d Cir.1972); United States v. Forsythe, 560 F.2d 1127, 1136 n. 15 (3d Cir.1977); United States v. Duke, 409 F.2d 669, 671 (4th Cir.1969); United States v. Gordon, 812 F.2d 965, 969 (5th Cir.1987); United States v. Lester, 363 F.2d at 72; United States v. ......
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