Miller v. Fenton

474 U.S. 104 (1985)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

A stranger approached the home of 17-year-old Deborah Margolin and told her that a heifer was loose at the foot of her driveway. She set out alone to investigate and never returned. Her mutilated body was found in a nearby stream. Officers of the New Jersey State Police tentatively identified P and, later that evening found him at his place of employment. P agreed to return to the police barracks for further questioning. Two hours later, Detective Boyce led P to an interrogation room and informed him of his Miranda rights. P executed a written waiver. Police laid into P. They lied about the following: that Ms. Margolin had just died; that she was still alive and could identify her attacker; that P had been identified at the Margolin home earlier in the day; and that bloodstains had been found on P's front stoop. Detective Boyce laid it on claiming sympathy to P and that P was not a criminal because he had a mental problem and needed medical help rather than punishment. P fully confessed to the crime. P then lapsed into a 'state of shock.' The trial court rejected P's motion to suppress the confession. The jury found P guilty of first-degree murder. The Appeals Court reversed; confession was the result of 'intense and mind-bending psychological compulsion' and therefore was impermissible under the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of due process. The Supreme Court of New Jersey reversed again. It found that the interrogation 'did not exceed proper bounds,' and that the resulting confession, being voluntary, had been properly admitted into evidence. P sought a writ of habeas corpus. The court dismissed the application without an evidentiary hearing. The Third Circuit affirmed holding that the voluntariness of a confession is a 'factual issue' within the meaning of 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d). The Supreme Court granted certiorari.