Opinion ID: 1858937
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the sixth amendment right

Text: Once an accused has asserted the right to counsel at arraignment or a similar proceeding, the police may not initiate interrogation. If the police initiate interrogation after the right has been asserted, any waiver by the defendant for that interrogation is invalid. Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 636, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 1411, 89 L.Ed.2d 631, 642 (1986). [A]fter the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches and is invoked, any statements obtained from the accused during subsequent police-initiated custodial questioning regarding the charge at issue (even if the accused purports to waive his rights) are inadmissible. McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. ___, ___, 111 S.Ct. 2204, 2209, 115 L.Ed.2d 158, 169 (1991). In Michigan v. Jackson , the U.S. Supreme Court explained that the need for a strict prophylactic rule in the Sixth Amendment context was just as compelling as the need in Fifth Amendment instances: In Edwards, however, we rejected the notion that, after a suspect's request for counsel, advice of rights and acquiescence in police-initiated questioning could establish a valid waiver. 451 U.S., at 484, 101 S.Ct., at 1884. We find no warrant for a different view under a Sixth Amendment analysis. Indeed, our rejection of the comparable argument in Edwards was based, in part, on our review of earlier Sixth Amendment cases. Just as written waivers are insufficient to justify police-initiated interrogations after the request for counsel in a Fifth Amendment analysis, so too they are insufficient to justify police-initiated interrogations after the request for counsel in a Sixth Amendment analysis. Edwards is grounded in the understanding that the assertion of the right to counsel [is] a significant event, 451 U.S., at 485, 101 S.Ct., at 1885, and that additional safeguards are necessary when the accused asks for counsel. Id., at 484, 101 S.Ct., at 1884. We concluded 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. Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 635-36, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 1410-11, 89 L.Ed.2d 631, 641-42 (1986). In Mississippi, the right to counsel attaches, once the accused is in custody (a fact generating the legal conclusion that the individual is under arrest) and all reasonable security measures (of evidence and persons) have been completed. Nicholson v. State, 523 So.2d 68, 76 (Miss. 1988) (Robertson, J., concurring). See Jimpson v. State, 532 So.2d 985, 988 (Miss. 1988) (right to counsel attaches after arrest and at point in time when initial appearance  ought to have been held ); May v. State, 524 So.2d 957, 967 (Miss. 1988) (same); see also Unif.Crim.R. of Cir.Ct.Prac. 1.02 (Once arrested, accused shall be taken  forthwith  before a magistrate); 1.04 (Every arrested person shall be taken before a judicial officer  without unnecessary delay ; at initial appearance, judicial officer shall inform defendant of right of counsel); 1.05 (Counsel shall be appointed no later than the time of initial appearance... .). By comparison, federal courts hold that the Sixth Amendment right of counsel attaches after the initiation of adversary criminal judicial proceedings whether by way of formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment or information or arraignment. Williamson v. State, 512 So.2d 868, 875 (Miss. 1987) (citing Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 89 L.Ed.2d 631 (1986); Moore v. Illinois, 434 U.S. 220, 226-27, 98 S.Ct. 458, 463-64, 54 L.Ed.2d 424, 432 (1977)). Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 89 L.Ed.2d 410 (1986); Maine v. Moulton, 474 U.S. 159, 106 S.Ct. 477, 88 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). Regarding invocation of the Sixth Amendment right, federal constitutional jurisprudence demands that we give broad, rather than a narrow, interpretation to a defendant's request for counsel at every critical stage of prosecution. Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 633, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 1409, 89 L.Ed.2d 631, 640 (1986). The requirement of broad interpretation of requests for counsel is merely the necessary and logical corollary to the rule that courts indulge every reasonable presumption against waiver of fundamental constitutional rights. Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 633, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 1409, 89 L.Ed.2d 631, 640 (1986) (quoting Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 1023, 82 L.Ed. 1461, 1466 (1938)). Susie Ann Balfour invoked her Sixth Amendment right to counsel and the state counterpart right secured by Art. III, § 26 of the Mississippi Constitution at her initial appearance held on Tuesday morning, October 11, 1988. By this time, Balfour had been under arrest for capital murder and in custody for the four (4) previous days (October 7, a.m.  October 11, a.m.). Clearly, Balfour's Art. III, § 26 right had attached at this point, Nicholson v. State, 523 So.2d 68, 76 (Miss. 1988), as well as the Sixth Amendment right with the initiation of criminal judicial proceedings by way of formal charge. McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 2204, 115 L.Ed.2d 158 (1991); Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 89 L.Ed.2d 631 (1986). At Balfour's initial appearance on the morning of October 11, 1988, the following exchange occurred between Balfour and Judge Barbee: THE COURT: ... Ms. Balfour, you have been in custody since on or about October the 7th. Have you talked to your family or anybody that is going to help you with regard to hiring a lawyer? DEFENDANT BALFOUR: They let me try for someone one time. They ain't let me get no phone call.       THE COURT: Do you want the opportunity to try to talk to a lawyer and try to hire one yourself? We have some public defenders in this County and we assign them on a rotating basis, and after you have attempted to hire an attorney if you want the Court to appoint a lawyer for you I will do that. But since you haven't yet talked to a lawyer or talked to anybody about hiring a lawyer for you  you have to at least make an attempt. (Addressing Investigators and Deputies.) Now, will ya'll let her make a phone call to her family today or this afternoon and see if she can get her family to help her hire a lawyer? INVESTIGATOR AND DEPUTIES: Yes, sir. THE COURT: Will you be calling your mother? DEFENDANT BALFOUR: Uh-huh. Keeping in mind that the invocation of the right to counsel is to be afforded a broad interpretation, Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 633, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 1409, 89 L.Ed.2d 631, 640 (1986), Balfour, along with a little help from the court, invoked her Sixth Amendment and Art. III, § 26, right at this time. See Balfour v. State I, 580 So.2d 1203, 1208 (Miss. 1991) (right to counsel invoked at initial appearance). Even if Investigator Radford and Deputy Smith had not been present at the initial appearance and heard the exchange between Balfour and Judge Barbee, knowledge of the invocation would be imputed to them. One set of state actors (the police) may not claim ignorance of defendants' unequivocal request for counsel to another state actor (the court). Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 634, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 1410, 89 L.Ed.2d 631, 641 (1986). Within less than four hours, Radford and Smith initiated contact with Balfour. As a result of this contact, Balfour waived her rights and made a full confession to the shooting of Lt. Lance. However, the rigid prophylactic rule of Michigan v. Jackson , and very recently re-endorsed in McNeil v. Wisconsin , absolutely precludes the State from the opportunity to prove a police-initiated valid waiver of that right. See McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. ___, ___, 111 S.Ct. 2204, 2209, 115 L.Ed.2d 158, 169 (1991) (once right has been invoked, any waiver which is product of police-initiated interrogation is invalid); Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 635-36, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 1410-11, 89 L.Ed.2d 631, 641 (1986) (same). It follows, then, that it was error for the trial court to admit into evidence Balfour's confession statement of October 11, 1988, since such statement was tainted by the constitutional violation of her Sixth Amendment right to counsel and rights secured by Art. III, § 26, of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890.