White v. United States

• Decision Date: 20 June 2013
• Docket Number: No. 12–CM–138.,12–CM–138.
• Citation: 68 A.3d 271
• Parties: Marquette Sharif WHITE, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

68 A.3d 271

Marquette Sharif WHITE, Appellant,

v.UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 12–CM–138.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued Dec. 5, 2012.

Decided June 20, 2013.

Michael L. Spekter, Washington, DC, for appellant.

Christine Macey, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Ronald C. Machen Jr., United States Attorney, and Elizabeth Trosman, John P. Mannarino, and Margaret Barr, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before WASHINGTON, Chief Judge, and THOMPSON and EASTERLY, Associate Judges.

EASTERLY, Associate Judge:

While driving his nine-year-old son to football practice, Marquette Sharif White was pulled over by the police because (according to the credited suppression-hearing testimony of one of the police officers) items were hanging from his rearview mirror, obstructing the view out the front windshield. But instead of being told the reason he had been stopped or being asked for his license and registration, as in an ordinary traffic stop, Mr. White was ordered out of his car, handcuffed, and moved to the rear of his vehicle, toward the cruiser driven by the police. While in handcuffs, separated from his son, and without having been given any explanation from the police about what was going on, Mr. White was asked by one officer whether he had “anything illegal” in his car. He responded that he had a joint in his pants. After giving the joint to the officer, he said he was just taking his son to football practice and he was sorry. He was subsequently charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana. ¹ In the trial court and now on appeal, Mr. White asserts that he was questioned by the police while in custody without the protection of Miranda warnings.²

Looking at the totality of the circumstances, we agree that, at the time he was questioned by the police, a reasonable person in Mr. White's position would have felt restrained to a “ ‘degree associated with a formal arrest.’ ” ³ Thus we hold that he was in Miranda custody and that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. We remand to permit Mr. White, who entered a conditional guilty plea after his suppression motion was denied, to decide whether to withdraw his plea.

I. Facts and Procedural History

At approximately 6:00 p.m. on October 28, 2011, Mr. White was driving his nine-year-old son to football practice; his son was seated in the back seat and was dressed in “football attire.” When Mr. White reached the 1400 block of Montana Avenue, N.E., however, his trip was interrupted when he was pulled over by two officers in a police cruiser who used “lights and sirens” to execute the stop. The officers exited their car and approached Mr. White's vehicle from both sides.

The officers did not inform Mr. White why they had pulled him over, and they did not ask him for his license and registration. Instead, Officer John Wright, the officer who approached Mr. White from the driver's side, “[i]mmediately asked [Mr. White] to step out of the vehicle, place his hands behind his back, and he was placed in handcuffs.” The officers “stepped” Mr. White, handcuffed, to the back of his car, in the direction of the police cruiser.⁴

When Mr. White reached the rear of his vehicle, the officers gave him no additional information about why they had stopped him, why they had put him in handcuffs, or what they were going to do with him. Instead, Officer Wright immediately asked Mr. White whether there was anything illegal in his vehicle. Mr. White said no, but then added that he had “a J” in his pants, which Officer Wright understood to mean a joint. Officer Wright did a pat down of Mr. White and found nothing of concern. Officer Wright then removed Mr. White's handcuffs and asked him to retrieve the joint. Mr. White complied and gave Officer Wright the joint. The officers also searched the car but found no other contraband. Officer Wright testified that, throughout this encounter, Mr. White was “very cooperative.” He told the officers that he was just taking his son to football practice and that he was very sorry.

After Mr. White was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, he moved to suppress his statements to the police and the joint as the products of questioning in the absence of Miranda warnings.⁵ Officer Wright testified at the suppression hearing that he and his partner had been assigned to a vice unit on the evening of Mr. White's arrest. The focus of the unit was on prostitution, narcotics, and weapons. Officer Wright testified that he pulled Mr. White over because baby shoes were hanging from his rearview mirror, obstructing the view out the front windshield. Officer Wright explained that he had been instructed to conduct traffic stops whenever an object was hanging from the rearview mirror so as to obstruct the driver's view.

Officer Wright testified that he does not as a matter of course handcuff individuals he has stopped for traffic violations, but that he handcuffed Mr. White for two reasons: (1) because the area was “a very high narcotics area, specifically, PCP, which is a very dangerous drug” and (2) because, as he approached the car, he saw Mr. White appear to stuff something into his pants, which gave rise to a concern that Mr. White might be armed. Officer Wright acknowledged that he had placed handcuffs on Mr. White so that he could be “detained.” Officer Wright testified that Mr. White was not free to leave at that point.

After hearing testimony from Officer Wright, the trial court denied Mr. White's motion to suppress pursuant to the Fifth Amendment. The trial court determined that, at the time of the questioning, Mr. White was not in custody so as to require the protection of Miranda warnings. Mr. White then entered a conditional plea pursuant to Super. Ct.Crim. R. 11(a)(2). Mr. White received a sentence of ninety days in jail, execution suspended, and six months of supervised probation. This appeal followed.

II. Standard of Review

In reviewing a denial of a motion to suppress, we defer to the trial court's findings of fact unless clearly erroneous and consider all inferences in favor of the prevailing party. Griffin v. United States, 878 A.2d 1195, 1198 (D.C.2005) (citing Mitchell v. United States, 746 A.2d 877, 881 n. 2 (D.C.2000)). However, we review de novo all legal questions, including whether a suspect was in custody for purposesof Miranda. Id.; see also In re I.J., 906 A.2d 249, 261–62 (D.C.2005) ( “This court will defer to the trial court's findings of fact, but will evaluate de novo whether, on those facts, the person was in custody.”).

III. Analysis

The Fifth Amendment provides that “[n]o person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” U.S. Const. amend. V. This constitutional rule governs only the evidence the government may use against a defendant at trial. By its literal terms, it precludes the prosecution's use at trial of a defendant's involuntarily made or “compelled” statements. And pursuant to Miranda, it also precludes the prosecution's use in its case-in-chief of statements that have been elicited during custodial interrogation without the benefit of “prophylactic warnings ... which inform criminal defendants of various constitutional rights,” In re I.J., 906 A.2d at 255, regardless of whether those unwarned statements would otherwise be considered “compelled.” ⁶Miranda warnings are required whenever a suspect is both (1) in custody and (2) under interrogation. See, e.g., In re D.W., 989 A.2d 196, 200 (D.C.2010). In this case, the government has never argued that Mr. White was not under interrogation when Officer Wright asked him if he had any contraband in his car.⁷ Thus, the only question before us is whether Mr. White was in Miranda custody when the police questioned him.

“In evaluating whether a person was in custody [for Miranda purposes], ‘the only relevant inquiry is how a reasonable man [or woman] in the suspect's position would have understood his [or her] situation.’ ” ⁸In re I.J., 906 A.2d at 256 (quoting Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 442, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984)). A court must look to the totality of the circumstances “surrounding the interrogation” and then determine whether a reasonable person in those circumstances would “ ‘have felt he or she was not at liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave.’ ” Id. (quoting Thompson v. Keohane, 516 U.S. 99, 112, 116 S.Ct. 457, 133 L.Ed.2d 383 (1995)); see also United States v. Turner, 761 A.2d 845, 851 (D.C.2000) ( “The test for determining whether a person is in custody is an objective one ... ‘based upon looking at the totality of the circumstances.’ ” (brackets omitted) (quoting Patton v. United States, 633 A.2d 800, 814 (D.C.1993))). The mere fact that a suspect has been detained by the police, however, is not sufficient to constitute Miranda custody:

“Once the scene is set and the players' lines and actions are reconstructed, the court must apply an objective test to resolve ‘the ultimate inquiry’: was there a formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement of the degree associated with a formal arrest.”

In re I.J., 906 A.2d at 256 (brackets omitted) (quoting Keohane, 516 U.S. at 112, 116 S.Ct. 457 (internal quotation marks omitted)). In conducting this inquiry, the court “ ‘must be informed by the underlying purpose of the Miranda rule, namely to protect individuals from compelled self-incrimination.’ ” Id. (quoting Resper v. United States, 793 A.2d 450, 456 (2002)).

As noted above, our focus must be on how a reasonable person in Mr. White's shoes would have perceived his situation at the time he was questioned. Because Mr. White was questioned in the course of a traffic stop, we begin our analysis with the Supreme Court case addressing whether traffic stops may constitute custody so as to trigger the requirement to provide Miranda warnings.

A. Under Berkemer, a traffic stop may constitute Miranda custody.

The Supreme Court...