Opinion ID: 162318
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of Post-Arraignment Statements

Text: 39 Immediately upon his arrest, Mr. Willingham waived his Fifth Amendment rights and confessed to the attack on Mrs. Van Wey. He does not challenge that confession. Rather, he objects on Sixth Amendment grounds to the admission of two statements he gave shortly after his arraignment, which he later recanted, relating to (1) his pre-murder theft of Mrs. Van Wey's credit cards, from a purse she had left in her office, to deflect suspicion for the ensuing attack by making it look like a robbery (but which had the unintended effect of supporting the State's case on intent, since such a cover made no sense if he planned to leave her alive to tell the police about the attack); and (2) an assault on an officer in the Marines years earlier (relevant to the continuing threat aggravator). At trial, he insisted he stole the credit cards only after the attack on Mrs. Van Wey (for no plausible reason he could explain), and simply denied the latter assault. 40 Mr. Willingham's right to counsel had certainly attached when he made the statements in question, i.e., after the initiation of adversary judicial criminal proceedings... by way of ... arraignment. United States v. Baez-Acuna, 54 F.3d 634, 637 (10th Cir.1995) (quotation omitted). However, he does not dispute police testimony that repeated Miranda (Fifth Amendment) waivers were effected at this time. Such waivers can suffice for Sixth Amendment purposes as well, depending on two further factual considerations: whether the later contact was initiated by the police or the suspect, and whether the suspect expressly invoked his right to counsel before that contact. Under Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 89 L.Ed.2d 631 (1986), and Patterson v. Illinois, 487 U.S. 285, 108 S.Ct. 2389, 101 L.Ed.2d 261 (1988), the Sixth Amendment permits re-initiation of police questioning pursuant to Miranda procedures if the suspect has not requested the professional representation to which he is entitled, but, once he has made such a request, subsequent contact is permitted only if the suspect initiates it himself, even if the police otherwise adhere to Miranda safeguards. 41 Thus, the district court properly focused on whether Mr. Willingham requested counsel during his arraignment. The court noted that the OCCA had addressed the two statements made by [Mr. Willingham] after his initial appearance, but before he filled out and submitted his [formal, post-arraignment] application for appointed counsel, and had concluded that [t]he record indicates [Mr. Willingham] did not request counsel until [his subsequent written application]. Willingham, 947 P.2d at 1079. The district court deemed this a factual finding presumptively correct under § 2254(e)(1), and then considered whether Mr. Willingham's affidavit averring that he asked the judge to appoint counsel at his arraignment constituted the clear and convincing evidence necessary to rebut the presumption. This is a difficult question, because the arraignment was not recorded and there is no evidence in the record to counter Mr. Willingham's account (the OCCA denied his request for an evidentiary hearing on post-conviction, when he first submitted his affidavit). 42 The district court ultimately elected to resolve the matter through harmless error analysis. 4 With respect to the assault in the Marines, the district court held it was merely cumulative to other admissions Mr. Willingham had made about fighting and, thus, was harmless. We agree. Moreover, we note that the primary focus of this evidence—the continuing threat aggravator — was not found by the jury in any event. 43 In contrast, the timing and, by inference, purpose of Mr. Willingham's theft of the credit cards was clearly relevant to the crucial element of intent for first degree murder. However, the district court held that the physical evidence led to the inescapable conclusion that Mr. Willingham stole the cards before the attack, so his admission to the same effect was harmless. The court was referring to the fact that, despite the large quantity of blood in the washroom, and associated stains on the doorknob, hallway carpet, and Mr. Willingham's clothes, there was no blood in Mrs. Van Wey's office or on her purse. Two additional points support the district court's analysis. First, testimony from a witness in the building independently pointed to the pre-murder theft of the cards, by indicating that several minutes passed between her seeing Mr. Willingham walk by in the direction of the washroom and her hearing the noise of the ensuing attack. Second, regardless of the whole credit card scenario, the sheer brutality of the attack, especially the forceful kick to the head with which it concluded, weighed heavily in favor of a finding of intent to kill. Under the circumstances, the district court's determination of harmless error was correct. 44