Hearst

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE OF INCRIMINATING STATEMENTS

The defendant requested a hearing outside the presence of the jury for a determination by the Court of whether certain incriminating statements made by her subsequent to the time of the offense here charged were voluntary or the product of coercion or duress, irrespective of their truth or falsity. The Court granted such a hearing pursuant to its obligation as defined in Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U.S. 534 , 81 S.Ct. 735 , 5 L.Ed.2d 760 (1961), and Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368 , 84 S.Ct. 1774 , 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964). This Order constitutes the Court’s findings with respect to the question of voluntariness raised in the hearing.

The first of the statements in issue is found on a tape recording of the defendant’s voice made on or about April 18, 1974. The speaker identifies herself as “Tania”, the name allegedly adopted by the defendant while in the company of her Symbionese Liberation Army captors. If given credence, the statement made on this tape recording would constitute an admission by the defendant of her willing participation in the robbery of the Hibernia Bank on April 15, 1974, for which she…