H-3680.1  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 2613

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      56th Legislature     2000 Regular Session

By Representatives Lambert, Lovick, Cox, Campbell, Schindler, Carrell, Boldt, Esser, Mulliken and Delvin

Read first time 01/18/2000.  Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

Establishing the Miranda warning as a factor of voluntariness.

    AN ACT Relating to establishing the Miranda warning as a factor of voluntariness; and adding new sections to chapter 10.58 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 10.58 RCW to read as follows:

    The legislature finds that certain evidence, such as statements, admissions, or confessions by a defendant, and evidence that flows from such statements, admissions, or confessions, is necessary for truth and justice to prevail but that it may be excluded at trial solely because the defendant was provided inadequate Miranda warnings.  The legislature further finds that congress in 1968 enacted a law known as Section 3501 that provides that a failure to issue Miranda warnings does not require automatic exclusion of evidence in federal prosecutions and that the failure to give Miranda warnings is just one of several factors to be considered in deciding whether statements to law enforcement were made voluntarily.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 10.58 RCW to read as follows:

    In determining whether or not any statement, admission, or confession of a defendant was voluntarily made, the presence or absence of any Miranda warning is not conclusive on the issue of voluntariness but is one of several factors to be considered in determining the voluntariness of the defendant's statement, admission, or confession.  Only if a court determines that any statement, admission, or confession of a defendant was, in fact, objectively and wrongfully coerced and was, therefore, not sufficiently voluntary, may the court exclude such statement, admission, or confession and any evidence that directly flows from the statement, admission, or confession, that cannot be independently established.

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