SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today refused to back off its decision to grant habeas relief for a teenage mass murderer despite being told to reconsider by the Supreme Court. For the second time, a split en banc panel held that the suspect was improperly informed of his Miranda rights and that his confession was not voluntary.
Despite direction from the Supreme Court to review that holding in light of a recent Miranda-related opinion, Florida v. Powell, the majority again held that 17-year-old Johnathan Doody’s advisement of rights “completely obfuscated the core precepts of Miranda,” and that the “relentless overnight questioning of a sleep-deprived teenager by a tag team of officers overbore the will of that teen, rendering his confession involuntary.”
