United States Ninth Circuit

Denial of a petition for writ of habeas corpus relief, alleging that petitioner's state-court conviction rested on a confession obtained in violation of Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U.S. 600 (2004), is reversed where: 1) Justice Kennedy's Seibert concurrence, based on a rationale narrowing the result reached by the Seibert plurality, constitutes 'clearly established' Supreme Court law for the purpose of AEDPA review; 2) under this concurrence, a post-Miranda-warning statement must be suppressed if interrogating officers deliberately use the two-step interrogation technique that was used in Seibert, and if effective curative measures are not taken to ensure that the suspect genuinely understood the Miranda warnings; 3) here a Seibert analysis was clearly required; 4) the California Court of Appeal applied a rule that was contrary to federal law as clearly established by the Supreme Court in Seibert, and thus was owed no deference; and 5) petitioner’s post warning confession should have been suppressed because police officers deliberately employed a two-step interrogation technique, and that they did not take appropriate 'curative measures,' in violation of Seibert.

Appellate Information

• Published 2016/08/17

Judges

• FLETCHER

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel