California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Bernal, E064221 (Cal. App. 2017):
Initially, a request to have tape recording devices turned off does not automatically support that the waiver was not voluntary. (See People v. Samayoa, supra, 15 Cal.4th at pp. 828-831.) Moreover, there was no indication that defendant was emotionally distraught or had poor intelligence. Finally, "Voluntariness does not turn on any one fact, no matter how apparently significant, but rather on the 'totality of [the] circumstances.'" (People v. Neal (2003) 31 Cal.4th 63, 79.) Here, the totality of the circumstances support that defendant voluntarily waived his Miranda rights.
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Even if we were to assume that defendant's statement was obtained in violation of Miranda, the admission in this case was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. (Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18, 24.)
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