statement by officer directly to individual stopped for license check that officer had information the individual had a shot gun in his car was interrogation
How later courts described this case
- statement by officer directly to individual stopped for license check that officer had information the individual had a shot gun in his car was interrogation
- whether investigation has focused on defendant is one factor to consider in determining whether Miranda warnings should be given
- police may not circumvent Miranda requirement by using 'technique' of posing question in declaratory form
- absence of probable cause does not preclude a finding of custody when the other three factors are present
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
GEE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent.
Officer Black stated to Jordan that he understood Jordan carried a sawed-off shotgun. In response, Jordan stated that he did but had it elsewhere. 1 Officer Black threatened to search Jordan’s car. Jordan then volunteered to get the gun. 2 Black, prudently enough, declined this offer and found it himself. 3
It may be that Officer Black threatened both to interrogate and to search Jordan. But he did neither 4 since Jordan, as has been said elsewhere in another context, forestalled him by a timely compliance. For the reasons stated in the dissent to United States v. McCain, 556 F.2d at 256 (5th Cir. 1977), I would not hold that Jordan was interrogatéd nor extend the rationale of Brewer v. Williams, supra, a sixth amendment case, to this fifth amendment problem.
. Since the judge who heard the witnesses refused to suppress the evidence and the jury found Jordan guilty, it seems clear that there have been implied findings of fact that Jordan made this admission and also volunteered to get the gun, though he denied both at trial.
. See note 1 above.
. It is worth noting, as the majority fails to make clear, that the supposed “custodial interrogation” took place while Officer Black was still sitting in his patrol car and Jordan was standing outside the window. Black left his patrol car only after Jordan volunteered to retrieve the shotgun.
. Before Jordan made the statements in question.