US v. Capers, No. 07-1830

Mail Theft Suppression Order Affirmed

In US v. Capers, No. 07-1830, a prosecution for mail theft, the court affirmed the district court's order suppressing inculpatory statements made by defendant while in custody, holding that the initial interrogation conducted by an investigator aware of the obvious need for a Miranda warning, followed 90 minutes later by a second, post-Miranda interrogation by the same investigator, on the same subject matter, under similar circumstances and with no explicit curative language amounted to a deliberate, two-step interrogation technique designed to undermine the defendant's Miranda rights.

As the court wrote:  "The government appeals from an order entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (McKenna, J.) to suppress inculpatory statements made by defendant-appellee while in custody. We AFFIRM the order of the district court on the ground that the initial interrogation conducted by an investigator aware of the obvious need for a Miranda warning, followed 90 minutes later by a second, post-Miranda interrogation by the same investigator, on the same subject matter, under similar circumstances and with no explicit curative language amounted to a deliberate, two-step interrogation technique designed to undermine the defendant's Miranda rights."

Related Resources

• Read the Second Circuit's opinion in US v. Capers, No. 07-1830