Opinion ID: 1676965
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Heading: Attachment of the State Constitutional Right to Counsel at the Initiation of Adverse Judicial Criminal Proceedings

Text: Louisiana's original guarantee of the right to counsel followed the adoption of the Sixth Amendment by less than two decades. Acts of the First Legislative Council of the Territory of Orleans, 1804, 1st Sess. c. L, § 35, p. 442. See also State v. Cummings, 5 La.Ann. 330 (1850). The Louisiana Constitution of 1921, Article I, § 9, in pertinent part, provided that [t]he accused in every instance shall have the right ... to defend himself, to have the assistance of counsel.... Article 142 of the 1928 Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure mirrored the general constitutional directive for the assistance of counsel in every instance, and Article 143 directed the court to immediately appoint counsel for an accused felony offender if the defendant requested an attorney and proved his inability to employ counsel. Although Louisiana courts judicially recognized an indigent's right to court-appointed counsel as early as 1862, see State v. Ferris, 16 La. Ann. 424 (1862); Comment, Some Aspects of the Right to Counsel, 36 La.L.Rev. 666, 667 (1966) (L. Hargrave) (hereafter Comment), the general practice was to appoint counsel after a defendant pleaded at arraignment, with earlier appointment being deemed advisable, especially in capital cases. See State v. Brodes, 156 La. 428, 100 So. 610 (1924); Bennett, Right to CounselA Due Process Argument, 23 La. L.Rev. 662 (1963); Comments to Title XIV, Expose des Motifs, La.Law Inst.Code of Cr.Procedure Revision (1962); Comment at 669. In 1963, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963), elevated the right of an indigent defendant to court-appointed counsel in state felony trials to the federal constitutional level. Gideon, in combination with the critical stages expansion of the 1960's and early 70's, discussed in detail in preceding sections of this opinion, outmoded many of Louisiana's constitutional and statutory provisions. After these developments, it was clear that the federal right to counsel attached at least as early as the initiation of adverse judicial criminal proceedings; thus, the need for the assistance of counsel could arise at critical stages of the proceedings well before the arraignment. Consequently, Louisiana's response in 1966 by adding Articles 512 and 513 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure to provide that the court shall appoint counsel to assist an indigent before he pleads to the indictment did not assure that indigents would be afforded the assistance of counsel at each critical stage of the adverse judicial criminal proceedings. See La.C.Cr.P. arts. 512, 513. A 1971-72 study of the Louisiana court system called attention to the need for explicit statutory and/or constitutional provisions setting a more appropriate time for the appointment of counsel for indigents, definitely marking the limits of the investigatory and accusatory stages of the criminal process and designating the commencement of judicial responsibility. See A Study of the Louisiana Court System, The Institute of Judicial Administration, 92-109 (March 1972). Acting on the findings and recommendations of the Study, the legislature in its 1972 regular session added Article 230.1 to the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure to establish an initial court appearance or first judicial hearing procedure in criminal cases. See Senate Bill No. 342, Regular Session of 1972, and comments; State v. Chaney, 384 So.2d 442, 443-444 (La.1980). The article provided that at the first judicial hearing the sheriff or other law enforcement officer must bring an arrested person in his custody before a judge within a stipulated number of hours of arrest for appointment of counsel, if the accused is indigent, and for determination or review of bail. La.C.Cr.P. art. 230.1(A) & (B). If the person is not brought before a judge as required, he must be released. Id. at (C). This mandatory first appearance before a judge serves a highly significant functionit forms the dividing line between the initial period during which an accused is detained by, and under control of, the law enforcement branch of the criminal justice system, and the time when responsibility for his custody is assumed by the judicial branch. State v. Chaney, 384 So.2d at 444. Hence, by the time of the drafting and ratification of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution in 1973-74, Gideon v. Wainwright had constitutionalized an indigent's right to court-appointed counsel in state trials, Kirby v. Illinois had fixed the attachment of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel at the initiation of accusatory or adverse judicial criminal proceedings, and the Louisiana legislature, by enacting La.C.Cr.P. art. 230.1, had established the initial court appearance or first judicial hearing to demarcate investigation and accusation, provide for the initiation of adverse judicial criminal proceedings, and fix the time for the appointment of counsel to assist indigents. Working within the context of these antecedent events, the drafters and ratifiers in Article I, § 13 guaranteed that [a]t each stage of the proceedings, every person is entitled to assistance of counsel of his choice, or appointed by the court if he is indigent and charged with an offense punishable by imprisonment. Considering the purposes and function of the first judicial hearing established by La.C.Cr.P. art. 230.1, and the background of the Sixth Amendment jurisprudence, we conclude that a person's right to the assistance of counsel guaranteed by Article I, § 13 attaches no later than the defendant's initial court appearance or first judicial hearing. The plain words of Article I, § 13 do not restrict a person's right to assistance of counsel to the trial, the formal prosecution, or to any intermediate stage of the proceedings. Thus, it is clear that the right attaches at the earliest point of the judicial criminal proceedings. See L. Hargrave, The Declaration of Rights of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, 35 La. L.Rev. 1, 46-47 (1974). On the other hand, the drafters' and ratifiers' refusal to use the term critical stages indicates that they did not intend for attachment of the right to counsel to occur at crucial confrontations prior to the initiation of adverse judicial criminal proceedings, as was suggested by United States v. Wade, supra. The convention delegates and the voters evidently concluded that the right to counsel should attach no later than a person's initial court appearance or first judicial hearing because this proceeding, under both federal and state law, marks the division between investigation and accusation and signals the initiation of adverse judicial criminal proceedings. Kirby v. Illinois, supra; La.C.Cr.P. Art. 230.1 (Added by Act 700 of 1972). See also State v. Chaney, supra; Sen. Bill No. 342, Regular Session of 1972 and comments; A Study of the Louisiana Court System, The Institute of Judicial Administration, pp. 93-109 (March 1972).