State v. Foster
1980 Ore. LEXIS 752, 607 P.2d 173, 288 Or. 649 (1980)
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Rule of Law:
When a suspect in custody invokes their right to an attorney, a subsequent waiver of that right is involuntary and invalid if it is the result of continued police efforts to wear down the suspect's resistance and persuade them to change their mind.
Facts:
- On April 10, 1978, the defendant was arrested at his residence for kidnapping and extortion.
- At the police station around 12:15 a.m., the defendant stated that he did not want to discuss any matter without an attorney present.
- For approximately the next four hours, police detectives continued to speak with the defendant, presenting him with evidence, discussing potential penalties and plea bargaining, and suggesting he would benefit from cooperating.
- During this questioning, the defendant repeated his request for an attorney three or four times.
- A day later, on April 12, before the defendant had consulted with an attorney, a detective again spoke with him in jail.
- The detective informed the defendant of new developments, including his brother's arrest and implication of the defendant, and again suggested cooperation would be beneficial.
- After approximately 15 minutes of this discussion, the defendant agreed to waive his right to have an attorney present, signed a formal waiver, and made an incriminating statement.
Procedural Posture:
- The defendant was charged with kidnapping in the first degree and extortion.
- At the trial court, the defendant filed a motion to suppress statements he made on April 11 and April 12.
- The trial court granted the motion as to the April 11 statements but denied the motion as to the April 12 statements.
- Following a trial before the court, the defendant was convicted of kidnapping.
- The defendant (appellant) appealed the partial denial of his suppression motion to the Court of Appeals of Oregon, an intermediate appellate court.
- The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's decision.
- The defendant sought and was granted review by the Supreme Court of Oregon, the state's highest court.
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Issue:
Is a suspect's waiver of the right to counsel voluntary when it is obtained after police have ignored the suspect's repeated requests for an attorney and have persisted in efforts to wear down the suspect's resistance?
Opinions:
Majority - Howell, J.
No. The defendant's waiver of his right to counsel was not voluntary because it was the product of persistent police efforts to wear down his resistance after he had invoked his rights. The court must look at the totality of the circumstances to determine if a waiver was knowingly and voluntarily made. Here, the police did not 'scrupulously honor' the defendant's initial and repeated requests for an attorney on April 11. Instead, they engaged in a three-and-a-half-hour interrogation designed to persuade him to waive his rights, creating the impression that asserting his rights was meaningless and offering their own opinions as a substitute for the legal advice he sought. This earlier unlawful conduct was not sufficiently removed from the events of April 12, and therefore tainted the subsequent waiver, rendering it involuntary as a matter of law.
Analysis:
This decision reinforces the high standard required for a valid waiver of Miranda rights after a suspect has invoked the right to counsel. It clarifies that the analysis of voluntariness is not confined to the moment of waiver but encompasses the entire course of police conduct. The court's application of a 'tainted fruit' analysis to the waiver itself, not just the confession, establishes that prior coercive police conduct can invalidate a subsequent, formally executed waiver. This holding serves as a strong deterrent against police tactics aimed at talking a suspect out of their asserted constitutional rights.
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