00-3052 U.S. v. Walker

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“It is clear that Walker was in physical pain (not many people find vomiting too comfortable). But whether the physical pain was so acute as to make his confession involuntary depends on the underlying facts of the situation. The district court chose to believe the testimony of the emergency room physician, who said that when Walker left the hospital, he was ‘alert and oriented’ and ‘with the program.’ His condition was noted as ‘good’ on the discharge form. The court also credited the testimony of Agent Spotts, who reported that during the interview and the lineups, ‘[Walker] seemed to be in a clear state of mind and coherent in his thinking.’ Agent Spotts also testified that Walker never complained about feeling ill and never asked for medical assistance. Finally, the booking agent at the MCC testified that the defendant had enough composure and understanding to complete his medical history form and answer questions at the prison later that day. The factual background against which we make our determination of voluntariness is thus one in which Walker was in command of himself, albeit suffering from some physical discomfort. The latter is not enough, on this record, to render his confession involuntary.

Nonetheless, it does seem to us that the government could have handled this in a way that would have obviated the need for such fine line drawing. It offers no reason why it could not have waited the 24 to 48 hours that, according to the physician, it would have taken for Walker to be through the most painful hours of withdrawal. There could be a case in which a suspect’s vulnerable physical condition rendered anything he said involuntary. The key point here, however, is that a suspect’s physical pain or drug use does not make a confession involuntary as a matter of law. See United States v. Schwensow, 151 F.3d 650, 659 (7th Cir. 1998). The district court’s finding that Walker was able to make a coherent decision to confess voluntarily was not clearly erroneous; we therefore uphold the finding of voluntariness.”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Hibbler, J., Diane P. Wood, J.