Appellate Ruling Renews Focus on Miranda Rights in Complex Death Penalty Case

By Robert Phillips  

Deputy District Attorney (ret.) 

Case Law:

• Miranda v. Arizona
• Readvising a suspect of Miranda rights in successive interrogations 
• Requests for confidentiality during an interrogation 
• A suspect’s intoxication during an interrogation 
• Threats of punishment and/or the death penalty 

Rules:  

(1) After an initial advisal and waiver or one’s Miranda rights, a new Miranda advisement is not necessary before a later custodial interrogation is resumed, so long as a proper warning had been given previously and the subsequent interrogation is reasonably contemporaneous with a prior knowing and intelligent waiver.  

(2) An in-custody suspect expressing concern that other co-suspects might discover that he is talking to the police, and an interrogator’s assurances they would not, does not preclude the later use of the suspect’s incriminating statements in court.  

(3) Absent evidence that a suspect is under the influence to the extent that he would not be able to understand and waive his Miranda rights, that he might have been intoxicated is irrelevant.  

(4) Threatening a vulnerable or frightened suspect with the death penalty or making promises of leniency in exchange for a suspect’s cooperation may result in the suppression of the suspect’s resulting admissions. However, there is no such threat where officers are very low key and their statements themselves are non-threatening. Also, explaining to a suspect that an accomplice is generally better off than a triggerman, and far less likely to receive the death penalty, is not coercive. 

Facts: Nineteen-year-old defendant Mao Hin, an alleged member of the Tiny Rascals Gang (or “TRG”), an Asian criminal street gang, was involved in at least three shootings in Stockton, California, between the months of September and November of 2003. Ultimately, Hin was charged in state court with multiple offenses stemming from two incidents: a murder and robbery in American Legion Park on Oct. 10 and a drive-by shooting on Bedlow Drive, plus a related shooting at a random vehicle ....