The Seibert Two-Step Interrogation Tactic

• Miranda and a Knowing and Intelligent Waiver
• The Two-Step Missouri v. Seibert Interrogation Tactic

The use by law enforcement of a two-step interrogation tactic by obtaining a pre-Miranda-admonishment confession, followed by a Miranda admonishment and waiver and a second confession, violates the rule that a Miranda waiver, to be valid, must be knowingly and intelligently made.

Defendant Byron Silim Sumagang and 20-year-old Carole Sangco were boyfriend-girlfriend despite having a tumultuous relationship.  Their relationship was complicated by the fact that Sangco was severely depressed, had reoccurring thoughts of suicide, and was addicted to methamphetamine.  Their relationship was further complicated by incidents of physical abuse perpetrated by defendant against Sangco, as later testified to by friends of the couple.  Then, on November 30, 2014, police responded to a 911 hang-up call directing them to a remote rural area in Monterey County.  The first sheriff’s deputy on the scene found a sleeping defendant sitting in a car with Sangco’s head in his lap. Sangco, with visible injuries to her face and neck, was quickly determined to be deceased.  Upon waking defendant, he became visibly upset and crying, telling the deputy that he was not supposed to wake up.  He made other spontaneous statements that were consistent with the physical evidence at the scene, indicating that the two had consumed copious amounts of drugs and alcohol and that defendant had tried to set fire to the car they were in.  Defendant made other statements indicating that he had attempted to commit a murder-suicide; that Sangco told him she wanted him to kill her but that he had “forgot(ten) to kill myself, too.”  Defendant was taken into custody and booked. Various experts later testified to Sangco’s probable cause of death.  The forensic pathologist who ....