Court Opinion

ID: 9472027
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:47:19.108235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:42.344183
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge, specially
concurring:
I concur in the result reached on the issue of whether Tinsley made a waiver of the right to counsel. Nevertheless, I write to express concern over the holding that United States v. Brown, 569 F.2d 236 (5th Cir.1978) (en banc), should control the issue of sufficiency of warnings. The majority opinion establishes law unnecessary to the narrow facts. There are situations in which a reading of Miranda rights is insufficient protection of a defendant’s sixth amendment right to counsel. Brown was, by its terms, a limited ruling. The court noted:
Even though the F.B.I. agent assumed Mary Brown had counsel, we do not mandate that Miranda warnings include a specific question naming counsel and an asking if he or she wants that particular attorney present. Under the facts of this case the Miranda warnings were *797sufficient, when dealing with a well-educated teacher, to make clear that “an attorney” includes the state public defender already appointed.
569 F.2d at 239 (footnote omitted). The majority of the court found that under the particular facts of that case, there was no need for the officers to ask additional questions about whether she had a lawyer and wanted him present. The majority went on to note that although the FBI’s choice of a location for questioning Mrs. Brown, a courthouse corridor, was inappropriate, it was a public place. The questioning in Brown was distinguished from a forced or custodial interrogation. 569 F.2d at 239.
The present case presents quite different circumstances and the differences are important. Whether or not Tinsley had counsel on the day he talked to the detectives, he did have the right to counsel. Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 398, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 1239, 51 L.Ed.2d 424, 436 (1977). The fact that the right to counsel had already attached when Tinsley was interrogated distinguishes this case from Brown. In Brown, the question of whether Mrs. Brown had a right to counsel was left unanswered since the court found a voluntary and knowing waiver of that right.1 In addition, Tinsley, unlike Mary Brown, was interrogated in a custodial setting. He was not in control of the circumstances of the interview. Since Brown concluded that the circumstances did, to a large extent, determine that additional questions were not required, it should not now be extended to stand for the proposition that such questions are never necessary.
Factually, this case more closely resembles Clifton v. United States, 341 F.2d 649 (5th Cir.1965). In Clifton, the appellant claimed, and in reversing the appeals court agreed, that the trial court erred in admitting an incriminating statement made one week before his indictment on charges of transporting a stolen vehicle in interstate commerce. Clifton argued that the Massi-ah doctrine rendered inadmissible all confessions obtained in the absence of counsel once the right to counsel has attached. Id. at 651. The court found that Clifton did have the right to counsel since the process had shifted from investigatory to accusatory.2 The court also found that although Clifton had initiated the contact with the federal agents, they should have made a reasonable effort to ascertain whether the prisoner had counsel and whether he wanted counsel present. Clifton had apparently asked the police to call his attorney and claimed that although he was read his rights no mention was made of his attorney or his right to have one present. The court found that the burden of making such an inquiry was not unreasonable where the defendant was young, unskilled in the law and where he had been in custody for over two months unable to contact his attorney at will. 341 F.2d at 652. The facts of Clifton include a prisoner with a right to counsel in a custodial interrogation. Clifton created a duty for interrogating officers to make a reasonable attempt to ascertain whether such an accused has an attorney and desires his presence. Id. at 653. Clifton was not overruled in Brown and therefore is still good law. As the summary of the facts and holdings indicate, however, Clifton also has its limits. The Clifton court made it clear that it was *798not reaching the question of admissibility of statements given under the same circumstances where the accused has clearly and unequivocally waived the right to counsel.
There appears to have been such a voluntary and knowing waiver of the right to counsel in the present case. Brewer v. Williams divided the government’s burden of proof on whether a defendant has waived counsel into two parts: 1) proof that the defendant understood his right to counsel, and 2) proof that he affirmatively relinquished the right.3 Tinsley knew about his right to counsel. Unlike Clifton, he had already been indicted and therefore informed about his rights and the serious nature of the charges against him. There is no reason to believe that he, like Clifton, was intimidated by the police officers.4 There was testimony that Tinsley was informed of each of his rights and agreed to waive them. He read and signed a waiver form.5 Moreover, the largely exculpatory nature of his statement, on the issue of the actual commission of the murder, indicates a willingness to talk in order to clear himself as the triggerman.
The failure to ask the additional questions about counsel in this case should not have rendered this confession inadmissible. Nevertheless, Clifton stands as support for the proposition that before obtaining a statement some care should be exercised in a custodial interrogation to insure a prisoner’s knowledge of his right to counsel and presence of that counsel.

. The majority in Brown specifically noted that the question of whether Mary Brown had a right to counsel was being left unanswered. 569 F.2d at 236. In addition, Judge Hill in his concurrence clarified that Brown did not present a Brewer situation in which the right to counsel had attached. Mary Brown did not have any counsel, retained or appointed, representing her in the federal investigation being carried on by the FBI agents. 569 F.2d at 239.

. As the Supreme Court explained in Brewer v. Williams:
Whatever else it may mean, the right to counsel granted by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments means at least that a person is entitled to the help of a lawyer at or after the time judicial proceedings have been initiated against him — "whether by way of formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information, or arraignment.” Kirby v. Illinois, supra, 406 U.S. at 689, 92 S.Ct. at 1882.
430 U.S. at 398, 97 S.Ct. at 1239, 51 L.Ed.2d at 436.

. This explanation of what a court should look for in determining whether there has been a waiver was given in dissent to the en banc Brown decision. 569 F.2d at 246 (Simpson, J., dissenting).

. As noted in the summary of the case, the Clifton court placed emphasis on the defendant’s youth, his obvious unfamiliarity with the law, and his inability to contact his attorney at will. The implication appears to be that Clifton was completely within the power of the FBI agents who came to interrogate him.

. Whereas a waiver is a good indication of intentional relinquishment of the right to counsel, it is not determinative. The defendant in Clifton had also signed a waiver form which the court found could not be considered a clear and unmistakable waiver in light of Clifton’s age, experience and the circumstances of the case. 341 F.2d at 653 n. 10.