Opinion ID: 812911
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Waiving the Right to Counsel

Text: An accused’s statement during a custodial interrogation is inadmissible at trial unless the prosecution establishes that he “in fact knowingly and voluntarily waived” his Miranda rights when he made the statement. Berghuis v. Thompkins, 130 S. Ct. 2250, No. 09-2011 Moore v. Berghuis Page 7 2260 (2010) (quoting North Carolina v. Butler, 441 U.S. 369, 373 (1979)) (internal quotation marks omitted). A waiver inquiry has “two distinct dimensions”: waiver must have been “voluntary in the sense that it was the product of a free and deliberate choice rather than intimidation, coercion, or deception,” and it must have been “made with a full awareness of both the nature of the right being abandoned and the consequences of the decision to abandon it.” Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 421 (1986)). “By its very nature, custodial police interrogation entails inherently compelling pressures” that “can induce a frighteningly high percentage of people to confess to crimes they never committed.” J.D.B. v. North Carolina, 131 S.Ct. 2394, 2401 (2011) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). The state bears the burden of establishing a waiver by a preponderance of the evidence. Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 168 (1986) (noting that a preponderance of the evidence standard applies to waivers of the right to counsel and the right to remain silent). We find that Moore did not waive his right to counsel. In order to demonstrate that Moore waived his asserted right to counsel and was therefore “not subject to further interrogation by the authorities until counsel [was] made available to him,” the government must have shown that Moore “himself initiate[d] further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police.” Edwards, 451 U.S. at 484–85; McKinney, 649 F.3d at 489. Though the Supreme Court in Thompkins recently addressed the issue of waiver of Miranda rights, we do not read Thompkins’s waiver analysis to alter the Edwards rule regarding waiver of the right to counsel. In Thompkins, the Court did not alter, or even speak to, the Edwards analysis regarding the waiver of the right to counsel; instead, Thompkins clarifies the waiver analysis for the right to remain silent. See Thompkins, 130 S. Ct. at 2275 (Sotomayor, J., dissenting) (noting that the Supreme Court necessarily treats both the invocation and waiver of the right to remain silent and the right to counsel distinctly, and stating that “Miranda itself distinguished between the procedural safeguards triggered by a request to remain silent and a request for an attorney” (internal quotation marks omitted)). No. 09-2011 Moore v. Berghuis Page 8 After calling the phone number of Moore’s attorney, the police officer returned and informed Moore that his attempt to contact the attorney was unsuccessful. According to testimony given by the officer at the suppression hearing, “at that time [the officer] asked [Moore] did he want to talk to [the officer] and [Moore] said yes he did.” The officer testified that he then had Moore sign a form waiving his constitutional rights, and “asked [Moore] could he tell [the officer] about . . . the fatal shooting of Hyshanti Johns and at that time [Moore] gave [the officer] a narrative of what happened.” At the same hearing, Moore testified that he asked the officer for an attorney “probably three or four times,” including once immediately before the questioning began. Moore also testified that after he had refused to make a statement without counsel present, the officer initiated an extended conversation with him about Moore’s father, religion, and potential witnesses. Following this discussion, Moore agreed to make a statement. Based on this and other testimony, the trial court found that, because “[Moore] indicated he did want to make a statement,” “signed an acknowledgment and waiver of rights form,” and made no additional request for an attorney, Moore had waived his right to counsel. The trial court did not make a finding on whether Moore or the officer initiated further communication following Moore’s request for counsel. The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed, finding that Moore had initiated further conversation with the officer. Under the review required by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, a state court’s decision is an “unreasonable application of clearly established federal law if it correctly identifies the governing legal rule but applies it unreasonably to the facts of a particular prisoner’s case.” Black, 664 F.3d at 91 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Michigan courts erred in concluding that Moore waived his right to counsel. The government did not show by a preponderance of the evidence, and the Michigan trial court did not clearly find, that Moore, and not the officer, initiated further conversation. In fact, the hearing testimony from both witnesses indicates that the officer reinitiated communication with Moore following Moore’s request for counsel, and that the officer explicitly asked Moore to tell him about the shooting. Although the Michigan Court of Appeals correctly cited the governing rule of Edwards, the state court unreasonably applied Edwards to the facts of Moore’s case in finding that Moore had No. 09-2011 Moore v. Berghuis Page 9 waived his right to counsel. The Michigan Court of Appeals unreasonably applied Edwards here by finding a waiver absent a factual finding by the trial court—and despite testimonial evidence to the contrary—that Moore, not the officer, had reinitiated communications, see Edwards, 451 U.S. at 485, and by not finding it to be error that the trial court effectively required that Moore assert his right to counsel a second time in order to secure it. The state court’s denial of Moore’s motion to suppress his custodial statement was therefore an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law.