Death Penalty Upheld: Court Rules FBI Car-Ride Confession Constitutional

By Robert Phillips
Deputy District Attorney (Ret).

Legal Concepts 

• Miranda vs. Arizona
• The issue of custody for purposes of Miranda
• An in-custody suspect’s attempt to invoke his right to silence
• An interrogation vs. a simple conversation
• An ingratiating interrogation vs. offers of leniency

Rule: A suspect is in custody for purposes of Miranda despite being told he is not under arrest when FBI agents use handcuffs, tell him they want to talk to him about a “high-profile murder,” put him into their car, and seek to transport him to the agents’ office. A criminal suspect telling agents that he “prefer(s) not to talk now” after having been advised of his Miranda rights is not a Miranda invocation. Talking to a suspect while transporting him to the agents’ office about topics other than his alleged crimes is not an interrogation. Agents are allowed to interrogate a criminal suspect after he provides a waiver of his Miranda rights. An agent ingratiating himself to the suspect during questioning is permissible so long as no offers of leniency are made, and the questioning is not otherwise coercive.

Case Decision at a Glance

Defendant Cary Stayner, who as a maintenance man at a lodge near Yosemite National Park, talked his way into a room rented by Carole Sund, her daughter, Juli, 15, and their friend, Silvina, 16. After murdering Carole by strangulation and Silvina by strangulation and suffocation, and putting their bodies in the trunk of the victims’ rented car, he sexually assaulted Juli that night. He then took Juli in the victims’ car to a remote area where, after sexually assaulting her again, slit her throat, leaving her body at the scene. He then set the car on fire. The burnt-out car and with the bodies of Carole and Juli in the trunk was found four days later.

Stayner was interviewed by the FBI and claimed to be out of town on vacation during the murders. In the following days, however, Stayner sent an anonymous letter to the investigating FBI agent providing hints as to where Silvina’s body might be found, leaving his fingerprint on the envelope. This led to the discovery of Silvina’s ....