United States v. Samuel Charles Gillyard

The government appeals an order of the district court suppressing the post-polygraph confession of the defendant. The district court concluded the defendant’s confession was the result of an invalid waiver of his Miranda rights in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, and, also, was obtained in violation of the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The government has taken an interlocutory appeal, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731 .

The parties now agree that since adversarial judicial proceedings had not been commenced against the defendant, the defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights had not attached. United States v. Zazzara, 626 F.2d 135,138 (9th Cir.1980). We hold, however, that the record sustains the finding of the district court that the defendant had not waived his Miranda rights and we therefore affirm.

FACTS

On January 10, 1983, a grand jury subpoena for fingerprints, palmprints and handwriting exemplars was served on Gill-yard, a postal employee, by two postal inspectors in connection with an investigation into a scheme to cash forged checks stolen from the mail. At the time of service the agents questioned the defendant and he denied his involvement…