Court Opinion

ID: 9726402
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:47:39.013963+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:26.810664
License: Public Domain

STUART, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion. I cannot reconcile this result with that reached in State v. Williams, 182 N.W.2d 396, filed December IS, 1970. In my opinion the totality of the circumstances required a reversal there but support an af-firmance here, contrary to the result reached by the majority in both cases.
In Williams the officer admittedly embarked on a campaign to obtain as much information as possible without direct questioning from an uneducated escapee from a mental institution in the face of an agreement with defense counsel to bring defendant to Des Moines before interrogating him.
If an affirmance was justified there, it is certainly proper here. This defendant is of at least normal intelligence. He was repeatedly advised of his constitutional rights including the right to counsel. The majority correctly found he waived these rights prior to making oral statements. After these statements were reduced to writing and presented to defendant, he stated he would like to talk to his counsel before signing. No more information was obtained from defendant. Almost immediately after requesting counsel he signed the statement without having conferred with him.
We have held that a defendant who has exercised his right to remain silent and have counsel present may reconsider and change his mind. State v. McClelland (Iowa 1969), 164 N.W.2d 189, 193. In my opinion defendant waived his right to counsel a second time and voluntarily signed the confession.
I am unwilling to hold under all the circumstances here that the officer’s statement to this defendant: “Well, you baked your cake and it doesn’t matter whether you sign this statement or not. That’s entirely up to you. It just gives a little more frosting on the cake if you want to sign this statement.”, makes the waiver of his right to counsel involuntary.
MOORE, C. J., and LeGRAND, J., join in this dissent.