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Defense urges suppression of Lovelace statements, citing prolonged custody and equivocal counsel request
Summary
At oral argument, defense attorney Stephanie Ritchie Miles asked an appellate panel to reverse denial of Mr. Lovelace’s motion to suppress, arguing prolonged custody, repeated complaints he was 'cold,' and an equivocal 1:01 a.m. request for a lawyer undermined voluntariness and required suppression of later statements. The state countered that the request was equivocal and any error would be harmless.
Attorney Stephanie Ritchie Miles, arguing for the defense, asked an appellate panel to reverse the denial of Mr. Lovelace’s pretrial motion to suppress statements obtained during a prolonged custodial interrogation.
Miles told the court that Mr. Lovelace arrived in custody at about 8:00 p.m., was cuffed to the floor, signed a Miranda waiver shortly after arrival, and was questioned intermittently beginning around 8:36 p.m. She said the record shows the defendant repeatedly told officers “I’m cold” (about six times) and made multiple bathroom requests during roughly four hours of intermittent questioning, which she argued is relevant to whether his statements were voluntary.
“Because he was cuffed to the floor and repeatedly complaining he was cold,” Miles told the panel, those physical conditions and the lengthy interrogation should factor into the voluntariness analysis. She also said…
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