Criminal Procedure — Professor Moskovitz — Spring, 2001

PART II: ESSAY QUESTION

Recommended time for this Part: 60 to 75 minutes

To: My law clerk

From: Judge Solomon King

 

Dan Doink (D) has been charged with theft. He filed a motion to suppress certain evidence. At the hearing on the motion, Police Officer Copp (C) testified as follows:

I was on foot patrol on 1st Street. At about noon, a woman came up to me and said, "Someone just snatched my purse and ran off with it." She said her name was Victoria Vance (V). I asked her what the man looked like, and she said he was white, about 25 years old, 5 foot 10 inches tall, medium build, with no facial hair and wearing an Oakland Athletics baseball cap.

I continued on my patrol. About 20 minutes after I left Ms. Vance, I saw a man meeting her description walking on Mission Street. I grabbed him and pushed him against a wall. I frisked him and said, "Where’s that lady’s purse?" He said, "I gave it to my partner." I then told him that he was under arrest. I looked in his pockets, and I found in his left front pants pocket a credit card with Ms. Vance’s name on it. I then told him his Miranda rights.* He said, "I probably shouldn’t say anything." I showed him the credit card. He didn’t say anything. I put him in my patrol car and took him to the police station. I booked him and learned that his name was Dan Doink. I took him to a jail cell. As I was putting him in the cell, he said, "That credit card was in the purse."

Doink moves to suppress his statement "I gave it to my partner", the credit card, and his statement, "That credit card was in the purse". How should I rule on the motion?

 

 

* Assume that these warnings were correctly stated.

 

Criminal Procedure, Professor Moskovitz, Spring 2001 Final Exam

OUTLINE OF ISSUES

I. "I gave it to my partner"

A. Fruit of illegal stop?

1. Did C have reasonable suspicion? #2

2. Attenuation? #1

B. Fruit of Miranda violation?

1. "Custody"? Compare Berkemer. #2

2. Interrogation? Compare Ferro. #2

II. The credit card

A. Fruit of illegal stop? Attenuation? Apply Brown factors. #2

B. Fruit of Miranda violation? No. Elstad. #1

C. Fruit of illegal arrest? No. C had p.c. #1

 

III. "That credit card was in the purse"

A. Fruit of illegal stop? Attenuation? Compare Wong Sun. #3

B. Fruit of Miranda violation?

1. Did D waive right to silence? Doesn’t seem so. #2

2. Was statement the fruit of interrogation by C? Seems so. #2