United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's conviction for distribution of controlled substances is reversed, where the district court erred in denying defendant's motion to suppress statements defendant made to FBI agents during a meeting with his parole officer, because: 1) the meeting was a custodial interrogation; 2) the agents engaged in a prohibited "two-step interrogation" by deliberately delaying giving Miranda warnings to induce the defendant's cooperation in an ongoing investigation; 3) even though another person was the target of the inquiry, the questioning necessarily elicited information that incriminated the defendant; 4) the mid-stream warnings provided after the defendant incriminated himself were not effective; and 5) because the confession was central to the conviction, the error was not harmless.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/18/2013
• Published 04/18/2013

Judges

• PER CURIAM

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel