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Name: Beaty v. Schriro
Case #: 05-99013
Court: US Court of Appeals
District 9 Cir
Opinion Date: 11/28/2007
Summary

Statements were properly admitted where they were voluntary under all the attendant circumstances. The appellate court affirmed the district court’s denial, on remand for an evidentiary hearing, of a habeas corpus petition in a capital case. The court held that the petitioner’s inculpatory statements to a prison psychologist were voluntary within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment and therefore properly admitted at his trial because the petitioner did not reasonably believe that his statements were protected by a confidentiality agreement, and any promise that might have existed was not sufficiently compelling or coercive to have overborne the petitioner’s will against self-incrimination. The panel also rejected the petitioner’s arguments that his statements were involuntary because he was coerced by fellow members of a therapy group or because he was forced to participate in the group.