Title: Ex Parte Woods

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

592 So. 2d 636 (1991)
Ex parte John WOODS.
(Re John Woods v. State).
1901369.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
December 20, 1991.
Dixon Fleming and L. Dan Turberville, Birmingham, for appellant.
James H. Evans, Atty. Gen., and Beth Slate Poe, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
SHORES, Justice.
The petitioner, John E. Woods, was convicted of capital murdermurder during a robbery in the first degree, Alabama Code 1975, § 13A-5-40(a)(2)and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, via § 13A-5-45(a). The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Woods's conviction and sentence on April 11, 1991. Woods v. State, 592 So. 2d 631 (Ala.Cr.App.1991). We granted certiorari review to determine whether the trial court had erred in failing to suppress a statement made by Woods to police officers. We conclude that the trial court did not err, and we quash the writ as having been improvidently granted.
The record reflects that Woods was arrested on July 21, 1989, incarcerated in the Jefferson County jail, and charged with capital murder. On July 27, 1989, Woods appeared in the district court, was found to be indigent, and requested an attorney; the district court judge appointed an attorney to represent him.
On July 31, 1989, Sgt. Paul Martin and Sgt. Clanton of the Birmingham Police Department's Robbery/Homicide Division went to the Jefferson County jail to talk to Woods. The officers were not aware that an attorney had been appointed to represent him, and he did not inform them of that fact. They did read him the Birmingham *637 Police Department's Miranda[1] rights form, which states that the accused has the right to an attorney. Woods signed the Miranda rights form after it was read to him, indicating that he understood that he had the right to an attorney, but he still did not inform the officers that an attorney had been appointed for him. Woods stipulates that he signed the form.
The police officers then asked Woods his whereabouts on the night of the murder. Woods told them he had been with a man whom he first called "James" and then called "Gerald" and that they had been drinking. He described an argument between Gerald and the victim over the amount of cocaine to be bought. The police asked Woods where they could find Gerald. He said at the Masonic lodge. When the police questioned him further as to where the lodge was, Woods said that he wanted to see his attorney and that he did not have anything else to say. All questioning ceased at that time.
An indictment was returned against Woods during the December 1989 session of the Jefferson County Grand Jury, charging him with capital murder under § 13A-5-40(a)(2). Woods was formally arraigned and he entered a plea of not guilty. The case came on to be tried on May 29, 1990, in Jefferson County. At trial, Woods moved to suppress the statement he had made to the police officers. He contends that the failure of the trial court to suppress this statement violated his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.
There is a long line of cases requiring the police to follow fair procedures when they interrogate citizens. The best known of such cases is Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966), in which the United States Supreme Court established procedures designed to counteract the inherently compelling pressures of custodial interrogation; those procedures include informing the person being questioned of his right to have counsel present. 384 U.S.  at 474, 86 S. Ct.  at 1627. The Miranda rights are based upon the Fifth Amendment guarantee that "[n]o person... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." In Miranda the Supreme Court held that when the person being questioned invokes his right to counsel, the interrogation must cease until an attorney is present. Id. The protections of Miranda were reinforced in Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S. Ct. 1880, 68 L. Ed. 2d 378 (1981), in which the United States Supreme Court established that once a person asserts the right to counsel, he may not be approached for further interrogation until counsel has been made available to him.
The Sixth Amendment provides that "[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." The rights of the accused under the Sixth Amendment have been held to attach "at or after the initiation of adversary judicial criminal proceedingswhether by way of formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information, or arraignment." United States v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. 180, 187-88, 104 S. Ct. 2292, 2296-98, 81 L. Ed. 2d 146 (1984). In Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 629, 106 S. Ct. 1404, 1407, 89 L. Ed. 2d 631 (1986), the United States Supreme Court recognized that an accused has a right to counsel at postarraignment custodial interrogations, under both the Fifth Amendment protection against compelled self-incrimination and the Sixth Amendment guarantee of the assistance of counsel.
The courts of Alabama have followed the reasoning of these cases in holding that all custodial confessions are presumed involuntary:
Magwood v. State, 494 So. 2d 124, 135-36 (Ala.Cr.App.1985), aff'd, 494 So. 2d 154 (Ala.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 995, 107 S. Ct. 599, 93 L. Ed. 2d 599 (1987).
The Court of Criminal Appeals offered the following reasoning for its holding that Woods's statement was properly admitted: First, because, it held, he waived his right to counsel under the Fifth Amendment by signing the Miranda rights form. Second, because the interview occurred prior to Woods's indictment or preliminary hearing, it held, the officers had the right to inquire if he wanted to make a statement. Peoples v. State, 510 So. 2d 554 (Ala.Cr.App.1986), aff'd, 510 So. 2d 574 (Ala.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 933, 108 S. Ct. 307, 98 L. Ed. 2d 266 (1987).
We must now examine the circumstances of the present case to determine whether Woods, in fact, knowingly and voluntarily waived his rights. The evidence reflects that after the Miranda form was read to him, Woods signed the form. Woods did not tell the officers that he had counsel, nor did he ask to see his counsel until after he had made his statement. The officer who questioned Woods testified that no inducement, offer of reward, or threat was made to Woods and that his statement was voluntary. Sgt. Paul Martin testified as follows:
Woods was reminded by the restatement of the Miranda rights to him that he had the right to an attorney and was not obliged to make a statement. He had ample opportunity to tell the police that counsel had been appointed and that he did not wish to speak with the police. Instead of informing the police, he signed the Miranda waiver, indicating that he knew that he had the right to counsel, but that he chose to give a statement without counsel. Both waivers of rights and admissions of guilt are consistent with the individual responsibility that is a principle of the criminal justice system. There was a responsibility on Woods's part to stop the questioning when he wanted it stopped. The evidence is unrefuted that no threat, promise, or hope of any reward was made or offered to Woods. Woods offered no evidence to contradict the State's showing of voluntariness.
For the reasons stated above, the writ of certiorari is due to be quashed as having been improvidently granted.
QUASHED AS IMPROVIDENTLY GRANTED.
HORNSBY, C.J., and MADDOX, HOUSTON and STEAGALL, JJ., concur.
[1]  384 U.S. 436, 470, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 1625, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966).