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WONG SUN v. UNITED STATES
371 U.S. 471 (1963)
WONG SUN ET AL.
v.
UNITED STATES.
No. 36.
Supreme Court of United States.
Argued March 29 and April 2, 1962.
Restored to calendar for reargument June 4, 1962.
Reargued October 8, 1962.
Decided January 14, 1963.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT.
Edward Bennett Williams, acting under appointment by the Court, 368 U.S. 973, reargued the cause and filed a supplemental brief for petitioners. Sol A. Abrams also filed a brief for petitioners.
J. William Doolittle reargued the cause for the United States. On the brief were Solicitor General Cox, Assistant Attorney General Miller, Beatrice Rosenberg and J. F. Bishop.
MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court. The petitioners were tried without a jury in the District Court for the Northern District of California under a two-count indictment for violation of the Federal Narcotics
Laws, 21 U. S. C. § 174.1 They were acquitted under the first count which charged a conspiracy, but convicted under the second count which charged the substantive offense of fraudulent and knowing transportation and concealment of illegally imported heroin. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, one judge dissenting, affirmed the convictions. 288 F.2d 366. We granted certiorari. 368 U.S. 817. We heard argument in the 1961 Term and reargument this Term. 370 U.S. 908. About 2 a. m. on the morning of June 4, 1959, federal narcotics agents in San Francisco, after having had one Hom Way under surveillance for six weeks, arrested him and found heroin in his possession. Hom Way, who had not before been an informant, stated after his arrest that he had bought an ounce of heroin the night before from one known to him only as "Blackie Toy," proprietor of a laundry on Leavenworth Street. About 6 a. m. that morning six or seven federal agents went to a laundry at 1733 Leavenworth Street. The sign
above the door of this establishment said "Oye's Laundry." It was operated by the petitioner James Wah Toy. There is, however, nothing in the record which identifies James Wah Toy and "Blackie Toy" as the same person. The other federal officers remained nearby out of sight while Agent Alton Wong, who was of Chinese ancestry, rang the bell. When petitioner Toy appeared and opened the door, Agent Wong told him that he was calling for laundry and dry cleaning. Toy replied that he didn't open until 8 o'clock and told the agent to come back at that time. Toy started to close the door. Agent Wong thereupon took his badge from his pocket and said, "I am a federal narcotics agent." Toy immediately "slammed the door and started running" down the hallway through the laundry to his living quarters at the back where his wife and child were sleeping in a bedroom. Agent Wong and the other federal officers broke open the door and followed Toy down the hallway to the living quarters and into the bedroom. Toy reached into a nightstand drawer. Agent Wong thereupon drew his pistol, pulled Toy's hand out of the drawer, placed him under arrest and handcuffed him. There was nothing in the drawer and a search of the premises uncovered no narcotics. One of the agents said to Toy ". . . [Hom Way] says he got narcotics from you." Toy responded, "No. I haven't been selling any narcotics at all. However, I do know somebody who has." When asked who that was, Toy said, "I only know him as Johnny. I don't know his last name." However, Toy described a house on Eleventh Avenue where he said Johnny lived; he also described a bedroom in the house where he said "Johnny kept about a piece"2 of heroin and where he and Johnny had smoked some of the drug the night before. The agents
left immediately for Eleventh Avenue and located the house. They entered and found one Johnny Yee in the bedroom. After a discussion with the agents, Yee took from a bureau drawer several tubes containing in all just less than one ounce of heroin, and surrendered them. Within the hour Yee and Toy were taken to the Office of the Bureau of Narcotics. Yee there stated that the heroin had been brought to him some four days earlier by petitioner Toy and another Chinese known to him only as "Sea Dog." Toy was questioned as to the identity of "Sea Dog" and said that "Sea Dog" was Wong Sun. Some agents, including Agent Alton Wong, took Toy to Wong Sun's neighborhood where Toy pointed out a multifamily dwelling where he said Wong Sun lived. Agent Wong rang a downstairs door bell and a buzzer sounded, opening the door. The officer identified himself as a narcotics agent to a woman on the landing and asked "for Mr. Wong." The woman was the wife of petitioner Wong Sun. She said that Wong Sun was "in the back room sleeping." Alton Wong and some six other officers climbed the stairs and entered the apartment. One of the officers went into the back room and brought petitioner Wong Sun from the bedroom in handcuffs. A thorough search of the apartment followed, but no narcotics were discovered. Petitioner Toy and Johnny Yee were arraigned before a United States Commissioner on June 4 on a complaint charging a violation of 21 U. S. C. § 174. Later that day, each was released on his own recognizance. Petitioner Wong Sun was arraigned on a similar complaint filed the next day and was also released on his own recognizance.3
Within a few days, both petitioners and Yee were interrogated at the office of the Narcotics Bureau by Agent William Wong, also of Chinese ancestry.4 The agent advised each of the three of his right to withhold information which might be used against him, and stated to each that he was entitled to the advice of counsel, though it does not appear that any attorney was present during the questioning of any of the three. The officer also explained to each that no promises or offers of immunity or leniency were being or could be made.
1. 21 U. S. C. § 174:
"Whoever fraudulently or knowingly imports or brings any narcotic drug into the United States or any territory under its control or jurisdiction, contrary to law, or receives, conceals, buys, sells, or in any manner facilitates the transportation, concealment, or sale of any such narcotic drug after being imported or brought in, knowing the same to have been imported or brought into the United States contrary to law, or conspires to commit any of such acts in violation of the laws of the United States, shall be imprisoned not less than five or more than twenty years and, in addition, may be fined not more than $20,000. For a second or subsequent offense (as determined under section 7237 (c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954), the offender shall be imprisoned not less than ten or more than forty years and, in addition, may be fined not more than $20,000. "Whenever on trial for a violation of this section the defendant is shown to have or to have had possession of the narcotic drug, such possession shall be deemed sufficient evidence to authorize conviction unless the defendant explains the possession to the satisfaction of the jury." 2. A "piece" is approximately one ounce. 3. The Record of the arraignment proceedings recites that arrest warrants were issued, on the arraignment dates, for the arrest of both petitioners and Yee. It was conceded in the trial court, however, that no arrest warrants were outstanding at the time of the actual arrests on June 4.
The Record also states that bond was initially fixed for each of the petitioners and for Yee in the amount of $5,000, on the recommendation of the United States Attorney. Later on the respective arraignment days, again on motion of the United States Attorney, it was ordered that each of the three be released on his own recognizance. 4. Because neither statement was ever signed, the blanks in which the dates were to have been inserted were never filled in. The heading of Toy's statement suggests that it was made on June 5, although Agent William Wong at the trial suggested he had only talked informally with Toy on that date, the formal statement not being made until June 9. The agent also testified that Wong Sun's statement was made June 9, although a rubber-stamp date beneath the agent's own signature at the foot of the statement reads, "June 15, 1959." 5. The full texts of both statements are set forth in an Appendix to this opinion. 6. 26 U. S. C. § 7607:
"The Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Assistant to the Commissioner, and agents, of the Bureau of Narcotics of the Department of the Treasury, and officers of the customs (as defined in section 401 (1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended; 19 U. S. C., sec. 1401 (1)), may— "(1) carry firearms, execute and serve search warrants and arrest warrants, and serve subpenas and summonses issued under the authority of the United States, and "(2) make arrests without warrant for violations of any law of the United States relating to narcotic drugs (as defined in section 4731) or marihuana (as defined in section 4761) where the violation is committed in the presence of the person making the arrest or where such person has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such violation." The terms "probable cause" for purposes of the Fourth Amendment and "reasonable grounds" as used in the statute, mean substantially the same. Draper v. United States,358 U.S. 307, 310, n. 3; United States v. Walker,246 F.2d 519, 526. 7. See Giordenello v. United States,357 U.S. 480, 485-487; Johnson v. United States,333 U.S. 10, 16-17. See generally Wilgus, Arrest Without a Warrant, 22 Mich. L. Rev. 541, 673, 695-701 (1924). 8. Our discussion implies no view whether a search warrant should be obtained where a search is conducted incident to a valid arrest, cf. United States v. Rabinowitz,339 U.S. 56, for nothing in this case turns on the presence or absence of a search warrant. Since the officers had obtained an arrest warrant in Rabinowitz, the question before us here was not there presented. As to the question before us, see Wrightson v. United States,222 F.2d 556, 559-560:
"But, if officers can arrest without a warrant and never be required to disclose the facts upon which they based their belief of probable cause—if, in other words, they have an untouchable power to arrest without a warrant,—why would they ever bother to get a warrant? And the same obvious conclusion follows if the courts, when an arrest is attacked as illegal, will assume, without facts, that an arrest without a warrant was for probable cause. To strike down all factual requirements in respect to probable cause for arrests without a warrant, while maintaining them for the issuance of a warrant, would be to blast one of the support columns of justice by law." 9. We noted in Giordenello that Rules 3 and 4 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provide that an arrest warrant shall issue only upon a sworn complaint setting forth "the essential facts constituting the offense charged," and showing "that there is probable cause to believe that an offense has been committed and that the defendant has committed it . . . ." The Fourth Amendment, from which the requirements of the Rules derive, provides that ". . . no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing . . . the persons or things to be seized." (Emphasis added.) The requirement applies both to arrest and search warrants. A description of a suspect merely as "Blackie Toy," operator of a laundry somewhere on Leavenworth Street, hardly is information "particularly describing . . . the person . . . to be seized." Such information is no better than the wholesale or "dragnet" search warrant, which we have condemned. See, e. g., Marron v. United States,275 U.S. 192, 196; see generally Kaplan, Search and Seizure: A No-Man's Land in the Criminal Law, 49 Calif. L. Rev. 474, 480-482 (1961). 10. Although the question presented here is only whether the petitioner's flight justified an inference of guilt sufficient to generate probable cause for his arrest, and not whether his flight would serve to corroborate proof of his guilt at trial, the two questions are inescapably related. Thus it is relevant to the present case that we have consistently doubted the probative value in criminal trials of evidence that the accused fled the scene of an actual or supposed crime. In Alberty v. United States,162 U.S. 499, 511, this Court said:
". . . it is not universally true that a man, who is conscious that he has done a wrong, `will pursue a certain course not in harmony with the conduct of a man who is conscious of having done an act which is innocent, right and proper;' since it is a matter of common knowledge that men who are entirely innocent do sometimes fly from the scene of a crime through fear of being apprehended as the guilty parties, or from an unwillingness to appear as witnesses. Nor is it true as an accepted axiom of criminal law that `the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.' " See also Hickory v. United States,160 U.S. 408; Allen v. United States,164 U.S. 492; Starr v. United States,164 U.S. 627; and for the views of two Courts of Appeals see Vick v. United States,216 F.2d 228, 233 (C. A. 5th Cir.) ("One motive is about as likely as another. Appellant may be guilty, but his conviction cannot rest upon mere conjecture and suspicion"); cf. Cooper v. United States,218 F.2d 39, 41 (C. A. D. C. Cir.) ("After all, innocent people caught in a web of circumstances frequently become terror-stricken"). But cf. United States v. Heitner,149 F.2d 105 (C. A. 2d Cir.). 11. See Kamisar, Illegal Searches or Seizures and Contemporaneous Incriminating Statements: A Dialogue on a Neglected Area of Criminal Procedure, 1961 U. of Ill. Law Forum 78, 84-96. But compare Maguire, Evidence of Guilt (1959), 187-190. 12. See Lord Devlin's comment: "It is probable that even today, when there is much less ignorance about these matters than formerly, there is still a general belief that you must answer all questions put to you by a policeman, or at least that it will be the worse for you if you do not." Devlin, The Criminal Prosecution in England (1958), 32. Even in the absence of such oppressive circumstances, and where an exclusionary rule rests principally on nonconstitutional grounds, we have sometimes refused to differentiate between voluntary and involuntary declarations. See Hogan and Snee, The McNabb-Mallory Rule: Its Rise, Rationale and Rescue, 47 Geo. L. J. 1, 26-27 (1958). For illustrative situations where a voluntary act of the accused has been held insufficient to cure the otherwise unlawful acquisition of evidence, see Bynum v. United States,262 F.2d 465 (holding inadmissible fingerprints made by defendant after unlawful arrest); United States v. Watson,189 F.Supp. 776 (excluding narcotics voluntarily surrendered by accused in the course of an unauthorized search). The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from which the instant case comes has recognized in an analogous context, that "all declarations and statements under the compulsion of the things so seized, are affected by the vice of primary illegality. . . ." Takahashi v. United States,143 F.2d 118, 122. 13. Moreover, we held in Opper v. United States,348 U.S. 84, 92, that even where exculpatory statements are voluntary and thus clearly admissible, they require at least the degree of corroboration required of incriminating statements. 14. For the history and development of the corroboration requirement, see 7 Wigmore, Evidence (3d ed. 1940), §§ 2070-2071; Note, Proof of the Corpus Delicti Aliunde the Defendant's Confession, 103 U. of Pa. L. Rev. 638-649 (1955). For the present scope and application of the rule, see 2 Underhill, Criminal Evidence (5th ed. 1956), §§ 402-403. For a comprehensive collection of cases, see Annot., 45 A. L. R. 2d 1316 (1956). 15. Where the crime involves physical damage to person or property, the prosecution must generally show that the injury for which the accused confesses responsibility did in fact occur, and that some person was criminally culpable. A notable example is the principle that an admission of homicide must be corroborated by tangible evidence of the death of the supposed victim. See 7 Wigmore, Evidence (3d ed. 1940), § 2072, n. 5. There need in such a case be no link, outside the confession, between the injury and the accused who admits having inflicted it. But where the crime involves no tangible corpus delicti, we have said that "the corroborative evidence must implicate the accused in order to show that a crime has been committed." 348 U. S., at 154. Finally, we have said that one uncorroborated admission by the accused does not, standing alone, corroborate an unverified confession. United States v. Calderon,348 U.S. 160, 165. 16. See Developments in the Law—Criminal Conspiracy, 72 Harv. L. Rev. 922, 989-990 (1959). 17. Cf. Williams, The Proof of Guilt (1958), 135: "Even where . . . the evidence of an accomplice becomes admissible against his fellows, it remains suspect evidence, because of the tainted source from which it comes. The accomplice may no longer have anything to fear or hope from the way in which he gives his evidence; yet he may mistakenly entertain such a fear or hope, or he may wish by his evidence against others to gratify some spite against them." 18. This case is not like Jones v. United States,362 U.S. 257, where the person challenging the seizure of evidence was lawfully on the premises at the time of the search. Nor is it like Chapman v. United States,365 U.S. 610, where we held that a landlord could not lawfully consent to a search of his tenant's premises. See generally Edwards, Standing to Suppress Unreasonably Seized Evidence, 47 N. W. U. L. Rev. 471 (1952). * One of the officers testified at the trial that he had known Hom Way for six weeks. In response to the question whether Hom Way was a reliable informer, the officer replied, "I believe so, yes, sir."
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