Opinion ID: 511654
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Defendant's Invocation of His Right to Counsel

Text: 31 Although the defendant insists that he requested counsel repeatedly throughout his interview with the detectives, the magistrate and the district court credited the testimony of the detectives who stated that defendant's only request for counsel came at the end of their interview after they had asked the defendant if he would consent to a search of his apartment. The defendant then requested permission to use the telephone to call his roommate, Richard Ales, and his attorney. The detectives immediately honored this request, allowing him to use a telephone in the station to make several calls. The defendant was unable to reach his attorney, but he did talk to his roommate. After his telephone calls, one of the detectives inquired whether the defendant desired to discuss further his willingness to consent to the search. 32 It is well settled that when a person in custody requests counsel all questioning must cease until counsel has been made available, unless the person in custody initiates further communication with the police. Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 484-85, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 1884-85, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981); Arizona v. Roberson, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 2093, 2095, 100 L.Ed.2d 704 (1988). This bright-line rule 33 serves the purpose of providing clear and unequivocal guidelines to the law enforcement profession. Surely there is nothing ambiguous about the requirement that after a person in custody has expressed his desire to deal with the police only through counsel, he 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. 34 Roberson, 108 S.Ct. at 2098 (quoting Edwards, 451 U.S. at 484-85, 101 S.Ct. at 1884-85). 35 The detectives arguably violated this bright-line rule when they asked the defendant after his unsuccessful attempts to reach his attorney whether he wished to discuss his consent to the search of his apartment. The cases do not speak in terms of allowing a person in custody the opportunity to seek counsel, they speak of making an attorney available. The detectives, however, did not ask for more detailed information about the case, but only about what the defendant wanted to do about a possible search. 36 Even assuming that the detectives violated the defendant's right to counsel, this violation had little practical effect in the circumstances of this case. The defendant did not request counsel until the close of his interview with the detectives, and after he had already summarized for them the events of the evening before. The defendant had also provided similar information to Officer McLay earlier that morning. These statements need not be suppressed. After the defendant asserted his right to counsel, the detectives gained only the defendant's consent to search his apartment, and the defendant's identification of the party location. We find that the police did not need the defendant's cooperation to gain this information. 37 Even if we assume that it was error to fail to suppress the defendant's statements, and the information he provided after he asserted his right to counsel, the error under the circumstances of this case was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Milton v. Wainwright, 407 U.S. 371, 372, 92 S.Ct. 2174, 2175, 33 L.Ed.2d 1 (1972); Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967). The evidence gained from the defendant added nothing to the proceedings, and therefore cannot be said to have contributed to the defendant's conviction. Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 86-87, 84 S.Ct. 229, 230-31, 11 L.Ed.2d 171 (1963). 38 The defendant's consent to search the apartment was not necessary. Ales had originally told the police it was his apartment. Although the defendant had had his belongings in the apartment for a week to a week and a half, he had stayed there only two nights during that time. He never signed a lease or paid rent. The defendant himself expressed concern to the police that he could not give consent to the search without first speaking with Ales, because it was Ales's apartment. After he spoke to Ales, the defendant agreed to sign the consent form. Once they arrived at the apartment, the officers obtained signed consent forms from Ales and his girlfriend as well. 39 In United States v. Miroff, we found valid a search of a guest bedroom for which consent was obtained from the host. On the facts of that case, we had little trouble with the present issue insofar as the consent to search the room was concerned. Permission to search was obtained from a third party who possessed at the very least common authority over the bedroom sought to be inspected. 606 F.2d 777, 778-79 (7th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 928, 100 S.Ct. 1315, 63 L.Ed.2d 761 (1980); see United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 171, 94 S.Ct. 988, 993, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974). There was evidence that the guests had told the host that no contraband was present in the bedroom, and we found that the guests must be regarded as having assumed the risk that one with whom they shared the common area might properly permit that common area to be searched, particularly when the sharer was the dominant or controlling party in the general premises. Miroff, 606 F.2d at 779. The area, a bedroom in which the guests were staying, was found to be a common area because the host kept personal and family belongings in the room as well. 40 In this case, as in Miroff, we believe that the defendant must be regarded as having assumed the risk that the residents of the apartment would permit a search of the bedroom. The defendant had moved his belongings into the apartment, essentially for storage it seems, because he testified that out of the week to week and a half that his belongings had been in the apartment, he had spent only two nights there himself. It is reasonable to believe that during this time the residents of the apartment who paid the rent and, it appears, were there continuously, could have found it necessary to move the defendant's belongings for a variety of reasons convenient to them. Had the defendant been concerned about the inviolability of his possessions he would not have left them unattended and unsecured. We believe that the residents of the apartment were fully able to consent to a search of the entire premises, including the bedroom where the defendant occasionally stayed. Therefore, we find that the defendant's consent, which even he did not believe he could give, was not necessary to allow the police to search the area. 41 After the defendant had asked to speak to his attorney, but before he had that opportunity, he agreed to show the detectives where the party at which he had met Schuh had been held. The police were thus able to locate witnesses from the party. This evidence also was arguably obtained through a violation of the defendant's right to counsel. If, however, the police would inevitably have discovered the location of the party and the identity of the witnesses, then there was no reason to suppress the evidence. Indeed, suppression of the evidence would operate to undermine the adversary system by putting the State in a worse position than it would have occupied without any police misconduct. Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 447, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 2510, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984) (emphasis in original). In the Williams case, the police coerced the defendant to tell them the location of the victim's body, which had purposely been hidden in a field. The defendant's statements were eventually suppressed, but the location of the body was not, because, as the Court found, search teams were present in the area and would have located the body independently within a short time. The Court thus held that evidence regarding the victim's body was admissible because although the body was actually found through a violation of the defendant's right to counsel, it would inevitably have been discovered by the search teams. 42 In this case the evidence the defendant seeks to suppress is the location of a party he and the victim had attended. The defendant told Officer McLay when he was first questioned that he had met Schuh at a party. It is undisputed that others attended the party, although it is not clear how many. There is little reason to believe that the party's location would have long remained unknown. There is no suggestion that the party was a secret; to the contrary, it was one of several parties prompted by the local high school graduation. One or more of the people present no doubt would have been willing to come forward once the victim's death was made public as they were not personally involved in the events that occurred after the party. It is also likely that others not attending were aware of the party. According to the complaint, one of the victim's friends, Rebecca Reynolds, spoke with Detective Burdette Fraser about the party and Schuh's death the same day they occurred. Although this point was not addressed directly below, it seems clear from the record that the police would inevitably and easily have discovered the location of the party without the defendant's help. Suppression of the party location and the identity of the witnesses the police discovered there is therefore not warranted.