163 Md. App. 70 - Cooper v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

27 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Elstad, it must be remembered, dealt only with “a simple failure to administer the warnings, unaccompanied by any actual coercion or other circumstances calculated to undermine the suspect’s ability to exercise his free will[.]” Id. at 309 [ 105 S.Ct. 1285 ]. The Court emphasized “that, absent deliberately coercive or improper tactics in obtaining the initial statement, the mere fact that a suspect has made an unwarned admission does not warrant a presumption of compulsion.” Id. at 314 [ 105 S.Ct. 1285 ] (emphasis added). Nearly 20 years after Elstad , the Supreme Court was presented in Seibert with the situation hypothesized in Elstad : the failure of police to administer Miranda warnings under “‘circumstances calculated to undermine the suspect’s ability to exercise his free will.’ ” 124 S.Ct. at 2610 n. 4 (quoting Elstad, 470 U.S. at 309 [ 105 S.Ct. 1285 ]). The Seibert Court held that the two-step interrogation tactic used by the police to obtain a confession from Patrice Seibert violated Miranda. Id. at 2605-07. Seibert had a twelve-year-old son, Jonathan, who suffered from cerebral palsy. When Jonathan died, Seibert feared that neglect charges would be filed against her. She, together with two of her teenage sons and two friends, devised a plan to conceal Jonathan’s death by burning the family’s mobile home, with Jonathan’s body inside. To make it appear that Jonathan was not alone when he died, the plan entailed leaving Donald Rector, a mentally ill teenager who was li”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Robinson v. State

2. “The completeness and detail of the questions and answers during the Petitioner’s custodial interrogation: The completeness and detail of the questions and answers during Petitioner’s interview room interrogation were substantial. As noted above, this interrogation occurred after Petitioner had been confined to a holding cell, included a two hour “pre-interview” and concluded with an audio-taped statement. The timing and setting of the interrogations: Petitioner’s audio-taped statement and post-arrest statement were both made in the Homicide Unit. The continuity of police personnel: It was Detective Phelps who (1) transferred Petitioner from the holding cell to the interview room, where he interrogated her without advising her of her Miranda rights, and (2) obtained Petitioner’s post-arrest statement after advising her of her Miranda rights. The degree to which the interrogator’s questions treated the subsequent interrogation as continuous with the prior interrogation: It is clear that Detective Phelps treated Petitioner’s post-arrest statement as a continuation of her audio-taped statement. As noted above, Detective Phelps was unable to recall what details of the audio-taped statement he “summarized” for Petitioner, and he terminat ed the post-arrest interrogation when he was satisfied with her “what I said on tape was true” response. The overlapping content of the two statements: The “incorporation by reference” of the “summarized” audio-taped statement makes it clear that t”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Robinson v. State

3. “Justice Kennedy made clear in his concurrence that “[t]he admissibility of postwarning statements should continue to be governed by the principles of Elstad unless the deliberate two-step strategy was employed.” Seibert, 124 S.Ct. at 2616 . But, “[i]f the deliberate two-step strategy has been used, postwarning statements that are related to the substance of prewarning statements must be excluded unless curative measures are taken before the postwarning statement is made.” Id. Such curative measures, Justice Kennedy explained, “should be designed to ensure that a reasonable person in the suspect’s situation would understand the import and effect of the Miranda warning and of the Miranda waiver.” Id. He cited, as examples of curative measures, “a substantial break in time and circumstances between the prewarning statement and the Miranda warning .... ” Id. A break of this sort “may suffice in most circumstances, as it allows the accused to distinguish the two contexts and appreciate that the interrogation has taken a new turn.” Id. Justice Kennedy posited, as a possible alternative curative measure, “an additional warning that explains the likely inadmissibility of the prewarning custodial statement....” Id.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Robinson v. State