Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/392/616/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 02:46:11+00:00

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245 Cal.App.2d 112, 53 Cal.Rptr. 720, certiorari dismissed.
MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE, MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, and MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN join, dissenting.
The Court may leave this judgment standing only upon one or more of the following grounds: that there was no constitutional error in petitioner's trial; that whether or not there was error, objection to it was waived; or that the error was harmless. None of those grounds are persuasive to me, and I would reverse.
petitioner shortly after the fire. The night of her arrest, petitioner spoke with a police officer for several hours at the jail, answering questions and reciting her version of what she claimed to have been an accidental fire.
In an attempt to prevent questioning of his client, petitioner's counsel set up, with his associates, a 24-hour-a-day watch of her cell. Thereafter, at about 11 p.m. on October 9, Peggy Fisk, an undercover agent in the employ of the county sheriff's office, was falsely booked into the jail on a fictitious narcotics charge and placed in petitioner's cell. Two other prisoners who had shared the cell were later removed. Fisk did not advise petitioner that she was an agent of the sheriff placed in the cell to report on anything petitioner might say. She remained alone with petitioner until October 15, giving oral reports as to their conversations from time to time to the sheriff's office; a written report was prepared on October 12 and partly on October 14.
On October 13, a complaint was filed formally charging petitioner with murder; petitioner was arraigned that day on the complaint. [Footnote 1] An indictment was returned on October 20, and the complaint was then dismissed.
marrying Hayton, and had been reconciled with her husband, and that she would not be motivated to kill her husband for the insurance, since he earned some $30,000 a year in his dental practice.
Fisk was called as a prosecution witness at trial, and testified that petitioner told her in the cell after her arrest for murder that "she did not love her husband, but she respected him"; that "she had always loved Mr. Hayton, and still loves him"; that "she would receive over a hundred thousand dollars in insurance because of the accidental death", and that, "as soon as this mess was over, that she planned to take [her children] . . . away to Europe with the insurance money."
The district attorney relied upon and emphasized Fisk's testimony in his argument to the jury. See infra at 392 U. S. 628-629. After deliberating for more than three days, the jury returned a verdict that petitioner was guilty of murder in the first degree. She was later sentenced to life imprisonment.
Although the issue is not free from difficulty, it seems to me the record clearly reveals petitioner adequately raised and preserved her federal constitutional objection to Fisk's testimony. That issue arises in the following context.
Toward the close of its case in chief, the prosecution called Fisk as a witness. Petitioner's trial counsel immediately objected, before Fisk was sworn, to her testimony at that time, on the ground that he had not been given her address prior to her testifying, as he had been promised. There then occurred an extended conference in the judge's chambers.
"The COURT: . . . [Y]ou will have the opportunity to talk to her, but, on the other objection, we would have to have her sworn and at least testify to the preliminary questions anyway, and have an objection made at the proper time."
"Mr. FOLEY: You know that isn't right, your Honor."
"The COURT: Unless you want me to look at this [sheriff's] report and see what she knows. Does this report indicate?"
"Mr. TURNER [district attorney]: There has to be a foundation laid, an objection made. There is no way to -- "
"The COURT: I think there would have to be. I don't see how that could be done in the absence of the jury."
The following day, Fisk was called as a witness. The district attorney asked some preliminary questions. Fisk was identified as having been employed the previous October by the county sheriff as an undercover agent, and it was elicited that, in the course of that employment, she was assigned the task of pretending to be a prisoner in jail with petitioner, where she became acquainted and talked with her. When the district attorney asked Fisk if petitioner had discussed her "domestic problems with her husband," counsel for petitioner asked if he might "ask a question on voir dire." He elicited that Fisk had not identified herself as a police agent to petitioner, and had not advised petitioner she could have an attorney present when they talked. Direct examination was then resumed by the district attorney. Fisk then testified concerning petitioner's statements to her, see supra at 392 U. S. 618.
On cross-examination, petitioner's counsel elicited answers concerning Fisk's being placed in petitioner's cell, reporting to the sheriff, and activities in the cell (see infra at 392 U. S. 626). He also elicited that petitioner had told Fisk the fire was accidental, and, in short, a story concerning her husband's death consistent with that which petitioner had related to the police at the scene and in questioning at the jail, and consistent with petitioner's claim of innocence.
In these circumstances, respondent contends that it is "obvious" that petitioner's trial counsel, following his interview with Fisk, made a tactical judgment that her testimony would be helpful, and therefore that the federal claim is not available to petitioner here because it was waived. I find that view unacceptable.
In any event, this Court has long held that a waiver of a federal constitutional right is not lightly to be presumed. See, e.g., Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S. 458 (1938). In this case, counsel clearly apprised the trial court of the basis of his objection, and indeed he cited the specific decisions that clearly supported the claim. Surely there was no bypassing of the state courts on the issue.
"The defendant was then placed in the unfortunate position of being forced to object in front of the jury. If the objection were sustained, the jury might well . . . infer that, through a technicality, the defendant had managed to keep out of evidence a full confession. "
Thus, the most that can be said on this record is that trial counsel -- having previously raised the objection -- preferred to have Fisk's testimony admitted, rather than objecting to it in the presence of the jury after Fisk had been identified. Cf. Jackson v. Denno, 378 U. S. 368 (1964); People v. Schader, 62 Cal.2d 716, 727-728, 401 P.2d 665, 672 (1965). Placing a defendant in that kind of a dilemma with respect to renewing a federal constitutional objection serves no valid purpose. Douglas v. Alabama, 380 U. S. 415, 380 U. S. 422 (1965). And while respondent indicates here that California law permits a defendant to object to the admission of evidence and establish a basis for the objection outside the presence of the jury (citing Schader, supra), that was neither the import of the trial judge's ruling in this case nor the view of the district attorney at this trial (see supra at 392 U. S. 619-620).
Notwithstanding that respondent's own courts viewed Fisk's placement and activities in petitioner's cell as unconstitutional, respondent here attempts to defend the sheriff's action on two grounds, both of which are patently without substance.
Both state courts, see, e.g., People v. Flores, 236 Cal.App.2d 807, 46 Cal.Rptr. 412 (1965), cert. denied, 384 U.S. 1010 (1966) (jail cell plant); People v. Ludlum, 236 Cal.App.2d 813, 46 Cal.Rptr. 375 (1965), and lower federal courts, see, e.g., Clifton v. United States, 341 F.2d 649 (C.A. 5th Cir.1965), have held that the right to counsel as interpreted in Massiah and Escobedo bars the admission of statements obtained at some pre-indictment point, at least when the accusatory stage has been reached and the police have clearly focused upon the subject. [Footnote 10] However that stage be defined, it was clearly reached here.
Respondent also contends that petitioner's constitutional rights were not violated, because Fisk engaged in no "process of interrogations," Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. at 378 U. S. 491, designed to obtain a confession from petitioner, or that statements from her had not been "deliberately elicited," Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. at 377 U. S. 206. In the State's view, so long as Fisk acted simply as a listening post, she could testify as to any statements made to her by petitioner. That view was, however, rejected in Massiah itself. The Government in that case pointed to the fact that the record did not reveal that its agent had induced the defendant by persuasion (there based on friendship) to discuss his activities, and urged that "providing a defendant an opportunity to talk" [Footnote 11] did not violate his right to counsel. See also Beatty v.
United States, 389 U. S. 45 (1967), reversing 377 F.2d 181 (C.A. 5th Cir.).
At all events, Fisk was not put in the cell to discuss the weather, to console petitioner, or merely to provide her with companionship. Her presence itself was an inducement to speak, and an inducement by a police agent. While petitioner's statements to her were not obtained by coercive means, they certainly were not given, in light of the deception, through a knowing and intelligent waiver of petitioner's rights.
"It is almost incredible that, in these days of enlightened treatment by prosecution authorities of persons charged with crime, the Peggy Fisk incident could have occurred. . . ."
"The trick attempted by the authorities, in which they apparently hoped to obtain incriminating statements from defendant and to get her to throw herself on the alleged mercy of the sheriff and to suspect her own attorney, was completely indefensible. . . ."
doubt," Chapman v. California, 386 U. S. 18, 386 U. S. 24 (1967). Chapman was decided after the decision of the California District Court of Appeal now on review here, and normally a remand would be in order so that the state court might reconsider, in light of that case, its conclusion that the error was harmless. However, since a majority of the Court refuses to decide this case at all, I wish to point out why I cannot regard the error as harmless.
"But that's not what she told the girl [Fisk] up in jail. She told the girl up in jail that she still loved Hayton, felt that he would come to her."
"He [defense counsel] says the prosecution's case is based entirely on surmise and conjecture. That's not true."
"Is it surmise and conjecture that Mrs. Miller had been infatuated with Hayton and wanted to marry him?"
"There is disagreement as to when this wanting to marry him stopped, but there is no question at all that she wanted to marry him."
"Is it surmise and conjecture that she told the girl up in jail she still loved Hayton and did not love her husband?"
"And, of course, right after her husband's death, she is arrested and is in custody, and she tells the girl upstairs that she still loves Hayton."
To be sure, for almost each point upon which Fisk's testimony was emphasized, there was other supporting evidence. But this Court has always viewed evidence out of a defendant's own mouth, obtained after the events, as particularly weighty with the jury. See Bram v. United States, 168 U. S. 532 (1897); Jackson v. Denno, 378 U. S. 368 (1964). And, as the quotations above indicate, that was plainly the view of the district attorney in this case. Certainly Fisk's testimony, if believed, made the prosecution's case much more credible, and undermined petitioner's defense.
not guilt and innocence, but degree of guilt, even though only the former would have been consistent with the prosecution's theory. Fisk's testimony may have been particularly important with respect to the jury's resolution of that matter. While, of course, one cannot know definitely what occupied the jury's time during the three days it deliberated, I am convinced it cannot be said "beyond a reasonable doubt," Chapman v. California, supra, that there is no "reasonable possibility that the evidence complained of might have contributed to the conviction." Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U. S. 85, 375 U. S. 86-87 (1963). I would therefore reverse petitioner's conviction.
The judge on the same day issued an order prohibiting officials from questioning petitioner unless her attorney was present, and ordered her attorneys to cease sitting outside her cell. Apparently, the police did not inform the judge of Fisk's continued presence.
Counsel cited by name and discussed, as did the district attorney, Massiah v. United States, 377 U. S. 201 (1964), and People v. Dorado, 62 Cal.2d 338, 398 P.2d 361 (1965). The latter decision, grounded on the Federal Constitution, encompasses a claim based on Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U. S. 478 (1964).
The district attorney represented that Fisk, although being with petitioner "for about a week," did not interrogate petitioner or in any way seek to elicit information from her. Although that representation was undoubtedly made in good faith at the time, it is conceded to be incorrect. See infra at 392 U. S. 626.
One factor recited by the court as leading it to conclude that petitioner's counsel desired Peggy Fisk's testimony was that he "received a copy of Peggy's reports to her superiors concerning her talks with defendant," and, apparently, was in a position to balance its advantages and disadvantages. 245 Cal.App.2d at 143, 53 Cal.Rptr. at 740. The record does not reveal that sheriff's report, but it does show that counsel had seen it prior to objecting strenuously at the in-chambers conference to Fisk's testifying.
"[i]f the People should sustain the burden of establishing the fact of such tactics, we would treat defendant's stratagem as a waiver of the objection."
67 Cal.2d at 14, n. 4, 429 P.2d at 180, n. 4.
Cf. Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 372 U. S. 438-440 (1963). Compare Henry v. Mississippi, 379 U. S. 443 (1965).
At the same Term, Massiah was applied to vacate a state judgment affirming a conviction. McLeod v. Ohio, 378 U. S. 582 (1964). See also McLeod v. Ohio, 381 U. S. 356 (1965).
Cf. Hoffa v. United States, 385 U. S. 293, 385 U. S. 309-310 (1966).
Cf. People v. Robinson, 16 App.Div.2d 14, 224 N.Y.S.2d 705 (4th Dept.1962) (jail cell plant). See also Note, 79 Harv.L.Rev. 935, 1006 (1966).
Brief for the United States, Massiah v. United States, No.199, October Term, 1963, at 30.
Respondent also argues that petitioner did not show that any of her statements as related by Fisk occurred prior to the filing of a formal charge on October 13, or were specifically prompted by the four incidents of deliberate inducements to speak related in the text above., of course, petitioner has no such burden in the circumstances of this case. Besides, petitioners counsel asked Fisk, for example, "which day was it that she [petitioner] mentioned insurance money to you, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th or 14th?" Fisk was unable to answer. Moreover, assuming all the statements were made on the first day of Fisk's deceptive presence in the cell, I would reach the same result.
In addition to the other cited cases (see supra at 392 U. S. 625) in which the admission of testimony by jail cell undercover agents was held to be unconstitutional, see People v. Arguello, 63 Cal.2d 566, 407 P.2d 661 (1965).
Petitioner's trial, which began on January 11, 1965, was prior to the effective date of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), and therefore that decision is not applicable. See Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U. S. 719, 384 U. S. 734 (1966).
See Fontaine v. California, 390 U. S. 593; cf. Anderson v. Nelson, 390 U. S. 523.

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