Jade Anderson v. Tina Hornbeck

MEMORANDUM

Jade Anderson took a wallet and cell phone from a man her companion had choked into unconsciousness and — unbeknownst to her — fatally injured. Towards the end of a twelve-hour interrogation, she admitted that she took the items while the victim was still alive. On this basis, she was convicted of felony murder and sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison. Without her own inculpatory statements, the evidence would not even have supported a charge of robbery, but only one of theft. In her habeas petition, Anderson argues that her inculpatory statements should have been suppressed at trial because they were made after the interrogating officers disregarded her invocation of the right to counsel.

This case turns on the facts, so they are recounted briefly. After some hours of questioning, the officers put Anderson under arrest and handcuffed her. Without informing her of her rights, the officers then left the room, to search her purse before she was escorted to the restroom. They conducted this search at a table a short distance from the door to the interrogation room, which they left partially ajar. The officers spoke to each other, and, in response to…