247 N.C. App. 834 - State v. Portillo’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[W]e find nothing in the record that indicates that respondent should have been given Miranda warnings at any point prior to the time Trooper Williams placed him under arrest. For the reasons indicated above, we reject the contention that the initial stop of respondent's car, by itself, rendered him "in custody." And respondent has failed to demonstrate that, at any time between the initial stop and the arrest, he was subjected to restraints comparable to those associated with formal arrest. Only a short period of time elapsed between the stop and the arrest. At no point during that interval was respondent informed that his detention would not be temporary. Although Trooper Williams apparently decided as soon as respondent stepped out of his car that respondent would be taken into custody and charged with a traffic offense, Williams never communicated his intention to respondent. A policeman's unarticulated plan has no bearing on the question whether a suspect was "in custody" at a particular time; the only relevant inquiry is how a reasonable man in the subject's position would have understood his situation. Nor do other aspects of the interaction of Williams and respondent support the contention that respondent was exposed to "custodial interrogation" at the scene of the stop. From aught that appears in the stipulation of facts, a single police officer asked respondent a modest number of questions and requested him to perform a simple balancing test at a location visible to”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 253 N.C. App. 525 - State v. Burris

2. “The two standards are not synonymous, however, as is evidenced by the fact that the "free to leave" test has long been used for determining, under the Fourth Amendment, whether a person has been seized. Conversely, the indicia of formal arrest test has been consistently applied to Fifth Amendment custodial inquiries and requires circumstances which go beyond those supporting a finding of temporary seizure and create an objectively reasonable belief that one is actually or ostensibly "in custody." Circumstances supporting an objective showing that one is "in custody" might include a police officer standing guard at the door, locked doors or application of handcuffs. The trial court in the instant case mistakenly applied the broader "free to leave" test in determining whether defendant was "in custody" for the purposes of Miranda . We therefore remand the case to the trial court for a redetermination of whether a reasonable person in defendant's position, under the totality of the circumstances, would have believed that he was under arrest or was restrained in his movement to the degree associated with a formal arrest. The State contends this Court has been inconsistent in its application of the "ultimate inquiry" test versus the "free to leave" test. To the extent that [the cases cited] or other opinions of this Court or the Court of Appeals have stated or implied that the determination of whether a defendant is "in custody" for Miranda purposes is based on a standard other th”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 253 N.C. App. 525 - State v. Burris

3. “After a careful review of the record, we conclude, as a matter of law, that defendant was in 'custody.' The record reveals that defendant was ordered out of his vehicle at gun point, handcuffed, placed in the back of a patrol car, and questioned by detectives. Although the officers informed defendant that he was in 'secure custody' rather than under arrest, we conclude that defendant's freedom of movement was restrained to the degree associated with a formal arrest. A reasonable person under these circumstances would believe that he was under arrest.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 253 N.C. App. 525 - State v. Burris