Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/475/625/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 10:32:50+00:00

Document:
Later overruled by Montejo v. Louisiana, this decision provided that a criminal defendant cannot be interrogated by police after he or she has asserted the right to counsel at a court proceeding. Once asserted, the right to counsel cannot be waived.
Held: The confessions should have been suppressed. Although the rule of Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U. S. 477, that once a suspect has invoked his right to counsel, police may not initiate interrogation until counsel has been made available to the suspect, rested on the Fifth Amendment and concerned a request for counsel made during custodial interrogation, the reasoning of that case applies with even greater force to these cases. The assertion of the right to counsel is no less significant, and the need for additional safeguards no less clear, when that assertion is made at an arraignment and when the basis for it is the Sixth Amendment. If police initiate an interrogation after a defendant's assertion of his right to counsel at an arraignment or similar proceeding, as in these cases, any waiver of that right for that police-initiated interrogation is invalid. Pp. 475 U. S. 629-635.
421 Mich. 39, 365 N.W.2d 56, affirmed.
STEVENS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which BRENNAN, WHITE, MARSHALL, and BLACKMUN, JJ., joined. BURGER, C.J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 475 U. S. 636. REHNQUIST, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which POWELL and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined, post, p. 475 U. S. 637.
"expressed his desire to deal with the police only through counsel is not subject to further interrogation by the authorities until counsel has been made available to him, unless the accused himself initiates further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police."
Id. at 451 U. S. 484-485. In Solem v. Stumes, 465 U. S. 638 (1984), we reiterated that "Edwards established a bright-line rule to safeguard preexisting rights," id. at 465 U. S. 646: "once a suspect has invoked the right to counsel, any subsequent conversation must be initiated by him." Id. at 465 U. S. 641.
"requested counsel during their arraignments, but were not afforded an opportunity to consult with counsel before the police initiated further interrogations."
421 Mich. 39, 67-68, 365 N.W.2d 56, 69 (1984). We agree with that holding.
31, 1978. Bladel, a disgruntled former employee, was arrested on January 1, 1979, and, after being questioned on two occasions, was released on January 3. He was arrested again on March 22, 1979, and agreed to talk to the police that evening without counsel. On the following morning, Friday, March 23, 1979, Bladel was arraigned. He requested that counsel be appointed for him because he was indigent. The detective in charge of the Bladel investigation was present at the arraignment. A notice of appointment was promptly mailed to a law firm, but the law firm did not receive it until Tuesday, March 27. In the interim, on March 26, 1979, two police officers interviewed Bladel in the county jail and obtained a confession from him. Prior to that questioning, the officers properly advised Bladel of his Miranda rights. [Footnote 1] Although he had inquired about his representation several times since the arraignment, Bladel was not told that a law firm had been appointed to represent him.
The trial court overruled Bladel's objection to the admissibility of all four statements. On appeal from his conviction and sentence, Bladel challenged only the postarraignment confession. The Michigan Court of Appeals first rejected that challenge and affirmed the conviction, 106 Mich. App. 397, 308 N.W.2d 230 (1981), but, after reconsideration in the light of a recent decision by the State Supreme Court, it reversed and remanded for a new trial. 118 Mich. App. 498, 325 N.W.2d 421 (1982). The Michigan Supreme Court then granted the prosecutor's application for leave to appeal, and considered the case with respondent Jackson's appeal of his conviction. 421 Mich. 39, 365 N.W.2d 56 (1984).
The Michigan Court of Appeals held that the seventh statement was properly received in evidence. 114 Mich.App. 649, 319 N.W.2d 613 (1982). It distinguished Edwards on the ground that Jackson's request for an attorney had been made at his arraignment, whereas Edwards' request had been made during a custodial interrogation by the police. Accordingly, it affirmed Jackson's conviction of murder, although it set aside the conspiracy conviction on unrelated grounds.
"applies by analogy to those situations where an accused requests counsel before the arraigning magistrate. Once this request occurs, the police may not conduct further interrogations until counsel has been made available to the accused, unless the accused initiates further communications, exchanges, or conversations with the police. . . . The police cannot simply ignore a defendant's unequivocal request for counsel."
government efforts to elicit information from the accused, including interrogation, represent "critical stages" at which the Sixth Amendment applies. Maine v. Moulton, 474 U. S. 159 (1985); United States v. Henry, 447 U. S. 264 (1980); Brewer v. Williams, 430 U. S. 387 (1977); Massiah v. United States, 377 U. S. 201 (1964). The question in these cases is whether respondents validly waived their right to counsel at the postarraignment custodial interrogations.
factual differences in the contexts of the claims; and because respondents signed valid waivers of their right to counsel at the postarraignment custodial interrogations. We consider these contentions in turn.
"[G]iven the plain language of the Amendment and its purpose of protecting the unaided layman at critical confrontations with his adversary, our conclusion that the right to counsel attaches at the initiation of adversary judicial criminal proceedings 'is far from a mere formalism.' Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. at 406 U. S. 689. It is only at that time"
467 U.S. at 467 U. S. 189.
"Sixth Amendment guarantees the accused, at least after the initiation of formal charges, the right to rely on counsel as a 'medium' between him and the State."
Maine v. Moulton, 474 U.S. at 474 U. S. 176. Thus, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel at a postarraignment interrogation requires at least as much protection as the Fifth Amendment right to counsel at any custodial interrogation.
Indeed, after a formal accusation has been made -- and a person who had previously been just a "suspect" has become an "accused" within the meaning of the Sixth Amendment -- the constitutional right to the assistance of counsel is of such importance that the police may no longer employ techniques for eliciting information from an uncounseled defendant that might have been entirely proper at an earlier stage of their investigation. Thus, the surreptitious employment of a cellmate, see United States v. Henry, 447 U. S. 264 (1980), or the electronic surveillance of conversations with third parties, see Maine v. Moulton, supra; Massiah v. United States, 377 U. S. 201 (1964), may violate the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel even though the same methods of investigation might have been permissible before arraignment or indictment. [Footnote 5] Far from undermining the Edwards rule, the difference between the legal basis for the rule applied in Edwards and the Sixth Amendment claim asserted in these cases actually provides additional support for the application of the rule in these circumstances.
The State points to another factual difference: the police may not know of the defendant's request for attorney at the arraignment. That claimed distinction is similarly unavailing. In the cases at bar, in which the officers in charge of the investigations of respondents were present at the arraignments, the argument is particularly unconvincing. More generally, however, Sixth Amendment principles require that we impute the State's knowledge from one state actor to another. For the Sixth Amendment concerns the confrontation between the State and the individual. [Footnote 8] One set of state actors (the police) may not claim ignorance of defendants' unequivocal request for counsel to another state actor (the court).
for counsel at an arraignment, or about the police responsibility to know of and respond to such a request, our opinion today resolves them.
Edwards is grounded in the understanding that "the assertion of the right to counsel [is] a significant event," 451 U.S. at 451 U. S. 485, and that "additional safeguards are necessary when the accused asks for counsel." Id. at 451 U. S. 484. We conclude that the assertion is no less significant, and the need for additional safeguards no less clear, when the request for counsel is made at an arraignment and when the basis for the claim is the Sixth Amendment. We thus hold that, if police initiate interrogation after a defendant's assertion, at an arraignment or similar proceeding, of his right to counsel, any waiver of the defendant's right to counsel for that police-initiated interrogation is invalid.
* Together with No. 84-1539, Michigan v. Bladel, also on certiorari to the same court.
See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966). The Miranda warnings were also given prior to the questioning on January 1, January 2, and March 22. Although Bladel made certain inculpatory statements on those occasions, he denied responsibility for the murder until after the arraignment. As the Michigan Supreme Court noted, even without his own statements, the evidence against Bladel was substantial. 421 Mich., at 44, and n. 2, 365 N.W.2d at 58-59, and n. 2.
Respondent Jackson points out that the Michigan Supreme Court also held that his fourth, fifth, and sixth statements should have been suppressed on grounds of prearraignment delay under a state statute. He therefore argues that the decision rests on an adequate and independent state ground, and that the writ of certiorari should be dismissed. The state court opinion, however, does not apply that prearraignment delay holding to the seventh statement. Thus, although the Michigan court's holding on the other statements does mean that Jackson's conviction must be reversed regardless of this Court's decision, the admissibility of the seventh statement is controlled by that court's Sixth Amendment analysis, and is properly before us.
In Jackson, the State concedes that the arraignment represented the initiation of formal legal proceedings, and that the Sixth Amendment attached at that point. Brief for Petitioner in No. 84-1531, p. 10. In Bladel, however, the State disputes that contention, Brief for Petitioner in No. 84-1539, pp. 24-26. In view of the clear language in our decisions about the significance of arraignment, the State's argument is untenable. See, e.g., Brewer v. Williams, 430 U. S. 387, 430 U. S. 398 (1977) ("[A] person is entitled to the help of a lawyer at or after the time that judicial proceedings have been initiated against him -- whether by way of formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information, or arraignment'") (emphasis added), quoting Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U. S. 682, 406 U. S. 689 (1972) (plurality opinion). See also United States v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. at 467 U. S. 187-188 (quoting Kirby); Estelle v. Smith, 451 U. S. 454, 451 U. S. 469-470 (1981) (quoting Kirby); Moore v. Illinois, 434 U. S. 220, 434 U. S. 226 (1977) (quoting Kirby). Cf. Powell v. Alabama, 287 U. S. 45, 287 U. S. 57 (1932) ("[T]he most critical period of the proceedings against these defendants" was "from the time of their arraignment until the beginning of their trial") (emphasis added). The question whether arraignment signals the initiation of adversary judicial proceedings, moreover, is distinct from the question whether the arraignment itself is a critical stage requiring the presence of counsel, absent a valid waiver. Cf. Hamilton v. Alabama, 368 U. S. 52 (1961) (Alabama arraignment is a "critical stage").
The Michigan Supreme Court found that "defendants' request to the arraigning magistrate for appointment of counsel implicated only their Sixth Amendment right to counsel," 421 Mich. at 52, 365 N.W.2d at 62, because the request was not made during custodial interrogation. It was for that reason that the Michigan court did not rely on a Fifth Amendment Edwards analysis. We express no comment on the validity of the Michigan court's Fifth Amendment analysis.
Similarly, after the initiation of adversary judicial proceedings, the Sixth Amendment provides a right to counsel at a "critical stage," even when there is no interrogation and no Fifth Amendment applicability. See United States v. Wade, 388 U. S. 218 (1967) (Sixth Amendment provides right to counsel at postindictment lineup even though Fifth Amendment is not implicated).
In construing respondents' request for counsel, we do not, of course, suggest that the right to counsel turns on such a request. See Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. at 430 U. S. 404 ("[T]he right to counsel does not depend upon a request by the defendant"); Carnley v. Cochran, 369 U. S. 506, 369 U. S. 513 (1962) ("[I]t is settled that, where the assistance of counsel is a constitutional requisite, the right to be furnished counsel does not depend on a request"). Rather, we construe the defendant's request for counsel as an extremely important fact in considering the validity of a subsequent waiver in response to police-initiated interrogation.
"Although judges and lawyers may understand and appreciate the subtle distinctions between the Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to counsel, the average person does not. When an accused requests an attorney, either before a police officer or a magistrate, he does not know which constitutional right he is invoking, he therefore should not be expected to articulate exactly why or for what purposes he is seeking counsel. It makes little sense to afford relief from further interrogation to a defendant who asks a police officer for an attorney, but permit further interrogation to a defendant who makes an identical request to a judge. The simple fact that defendant has requested an attorney indicates that he does not believe that he is sufficiently capable of dealing with his adversaries singlehandedly."
421 Mich. at 63-64, 365 N.W.2d at 67.
"Once the right to counsel has attached and been asserted, the State must of course honor it. This means more than simply that the State cannot prevent the accused from obtaining the assistance of counsel. The Sixth Amendment also imposes on the State an affirmative obligation to respect and preserve the accused's choice to seek this assistance."
"when an accused has invoked his right to have counsel present during custodial interrogation, a valid waiver of that right cannot be established by showing only that he responded to further police-initiated custodial interrogation even if he has been advised of his rights,"
"In Brewer v. Williams, 430 U. S. 387 (1977), where, as in Massiah v. United States, 377 U. S. 201 (1964), the Sixth Amendment right to counsel had accrued, the Court held that a valid waiver of counsel rights should not be inferred from the mere response by the accused to overt or more subtle forms of interrogation or other efforts to elicit incriminating information. In Massiah and Brewer, counsel had been engaged or appointed, and the admissions in question were elicited in his absence. But in McLeod v. Ohio, 381 U. S. 356 (1965), we summarily reversed a decision that the police could elicit information after indictment even though counsel had not yet been appointed."
Id. at 451 U. S. 484, n. 8.
The State also argues that the Michigan Supreme Court's finding of a valid Fifth Amendment waiver should require the finding of a valid Sixth Amendment waiver. The relationship between the validity of waivers for Fifth and Sixth Amendment purposes has been the subject of considerable attention in the courts, 421 Mich. at 55-62, 365 N.W.2d at 63-67 (discussing and collecting cases), and the commentaries, id. at 54, n. 15, 365 N.W.2d at 63, n. 15. In view of our holding that the Edwards rule applies to the Sixth Amendment, and that the Sixth Amendment requires the suppression of the postarraignment statements, we need not decide either the validity of the Fifth Amendment waiver in this case, see n 4, supra, or the general relationship between Fifth and Sixth Amendment waivers.
"The extraordinary protections afforded a person in custody suspected of criminal conduct are not without a valid basis, but, as with all 'good' things, they can be carried too far."
from more than a doubling of the Court's work in recent decades, but this urge seems to be leading the Court to an absolutist, mechanical treatment of the subject. At times, it seems, the judicial mind is in conflict with what behavioral -- and theological -- specialists have long recognized as a natural human urge of people to confess wrongdoing. See, e.g., T. Reik, The Compulsion to Confess (1959).
We must, of course, protect persons in custody from coercion, but, step by step, we have carried this concept well beyond sound, common-sense boundaries. The Court's treatment of this subject is an example of the infirmity of trying to perform the rulemaking function on a case-by-case basis, ignoring the reality that the criminal cases coming to this Court, far from typical, are the "hard" cases. This invokes the ancient axiom that hard cases can make bad law.
Stare decisis calls for my following the rule of Edwards in this context, but plainly the subject calls for reexamination. Increasingly, to borrow from Justice Cardozo, more and more "criminal[s] . . . go free because the constable has blundered." People v. Defore, 242 N.Y. 13, 21, 150 N.E. 585, 587 (1926).
The Court's decision today rests on the following deceptively simple line of reasoning: Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U. S. 477 (1981), created a bright-line rule to protect a defendant's Fifth Amendment rights; Sixth Amendment rights are even more important than Fifth Amendment rights; therefore, we must also apply the Edwards rule to the Sixth Amendment. The Court prefers this neat syllogism to an effort to discuss or answer the only relevant question: does the Edwards rule make sense in the context of the Sixth Amendment? I think it does not, and I therefore dissent from the Court's unjustified extension of the Edwards rule to the Sixth Amendment.
"a valid waiver of that right cannot be established by showing only that he responded to further police-initiated custodial interrogation even if he has been advised of his rights."
"Edwards did not confer a substantive constitutional right that had not existed before; it 'created a protective umbrella serving to enhance a constitutional guarantee.'"
Solem v. Stumes, supra, at 465 U. S. 644, n. 4, quoting Michigan v. Payne, 412 U. S. 47, 412 U. S. 54 (1973); see also Shea v. Louisiana, 470 U. S. 51, 470 U. S. 61 (1985) (WHITE, J., dissenting) (describing "prophylactic purpose" of Edwards rule).
and n. 1 (1985). [Footnote 2/2] Edwards, like Miranda, imposes on the police a bright-line standard of conduct intended to help ensure that confessions obtained through custodial interrogation will not be "coerced" or "involuntary." Seen in this proper light, Edwards provides nothing more than a second layer of protection, in addition to those rights conferred by Miranda, for a defendant who might otherwise be compelled by the police to incriminate himself in violation of the Fifth Amendment.
absent in the Sixth Amendment context. To put it simply, the prophylactic rule set forth in Edwards makes no sense at all except when linked to the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against compelled self-incrimination.
Not only does the Court today cut the Edwards rule loose from its analytical moorings, it does so in a manner that graphically reveals the illogic of the Court's position. The Court phrases the question presented in these cases as whether the Edwards rule applies "to a defendant who has been formally charged with a crime and who has requested appointment of counsel at his arraignment." Ante at 475 U. S. 626 (emphasis added). And the Court ultimately limits its holding to those situations where the police "initiate interrogation after a defendant's assertion, at an arraignment or similar proceeding, of his right to counsel." Ante at 475 U. S. 636 (emphasis added).
the right to counsel turns on . . . a request [for counsel]." Ante at 475 U. S. 633, n. 6.
"we construe the defendant's request for counsel as an extremely important fact in considering the validity of a subsequent waiver in response to police-initiated interrogation."
Ibid. This statement sounds reasonable, but it is flatly inconsistent with the remainder of the Court's opinion, in which the Court holds that there can be no waiver of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel after a request for counsel has been made. See ante at 475 U. S. 635-636, n. 10. It is obvious that, for the Court, the defendant's request for counsel is not merely an "extremely important fact"; rather, it is the only fact that counts.
The four dissenters in Oregon v. Bradshaw apparently agreed with the plurality's characterization of the Edwards rule. See 462 U.S. at 462 U. S. 1055, n. 2 (MARSHALL, J., joined by BRENNAN, BLACKMUN, and STEVENS, JJ., dissenting) (citing passage from plurality opinion quoted in the text, and noting that "[t]he only dispute between the plurality and the dissent in this case concerns the meaning of initiation' for purposes of Edwards' per se rule").
"The use of physical brutality and violence is not, unfortunately, relegated to the past, or to any part of the country. . . ."
"The examples given above are undoubtedly the exception now, but they are sufficiently widespread to be the object of concern. Unless a proper limitation upon custodial interrogation is achieved, . . . there can be no assurance that practices of this nature will be eradicated in the foreseeable future."
384 U.S. at 384 U. S. 446-447.
See also Moran v. Burbine, ante at 475 U. S. 428 ("It is clear, of course, that, absent a valid waiver, the defendant has the right to the presence of an attorney during any interrogation occurring after the first formal charging proceeding, the point at which the Sixth Amendment right to counsel initially attaches").
Several of our Sixth Amendment cases have indeed erected virtually per se barriers against certain kinds of police conduct. See, e.g., Maine v. Moulton, 474 U. S. 159 (1985); United States v. Henry, 447 U. S. 264 (1980); Massiah v. United States, 377 U. S. 201 (1964). These cases, however, all share one fundamental characteristic that separates them from the instant cases; in each case, the nature of the police conduct was such that it would have been impossible to find a valid waiver of the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel. See Maine v. Moulton, supra, at 474 U. S. 176-177 (undisclosed electronic surveillance of conversations with a third party); United States v. Henry, supra, at 447 U. S. 265, 447 U. S. 273 (use of undisclosed police informant); Massiah v. United States, supra, at 377 U. S. 202 (undisclosed electronic surveillance). Here, on the other hand, the conduct of the police was totally open and above-board, and could not be said to prevent the defendant from executing a valid Sixth Amendment waiver under the standards set forth in Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S. 458 (1938).

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