O'Connor, J., dissenting
(1986) ("Events occurring outside of the presence of the suspect and entirely unknown to him surely can have no bearing on the capacity to comprehend and knowingly relinquish a constitutional right"). In Moran, an attorney hired by the suspect's sister had been trying to contact the suspect and was told by the police, falsely, that they would not begin an interrogation that night. Id., at 416–418. The suspect was not aware that an attorney had been hired for him. Id., at 417. We rejected an analysis under which a different result would obtain for "the same defendant, armed with the same information and confronted with precisely the same police conduct" if something not known to the defendant—such as the fact that an attorney was attempting to contact him—had been different. Id., at 422. The same principle applies here. A suspect who experienced exactly the same interrogation as Seibert, save for a difference in the undivulged, subjective intent of the interrogating officer when he failed to give Miranda warnings, would not experience the interrogation any differently. "[W]hether intentional or inadvertent, the state of mind of the police is irrelevant to the question of the intelligence and voluntariness of respondent's election to abandon his rights. Although highly inappropriate, even deliberate deception of an attorney could not possibly affect a suspect's decision to waive his Miranda rights unless he were at least aware of the incident." 475 U.S., at 423. Cf. Stansbury v. California, 511 U.S. 318, 324–325 (1994) (per curiam) (police officer's subjective intent is irrelevant to whether suspect is in custody for Miranda purposes; "one cannot expect the person under interrogation to probe the officer's innermost thoughts").
Because the isolated fact of Officer Hanrahan's intent could not have had any bearing on Seibert's "capacity to comprehend and knowingly relinquish" her right to remain silent, Moran, supra, at 422, it could not by itself affect the voluntariness of her confession. Moreover, recognizing an exception to Elstad for intentional violations would require focus-
