Court Opinion

ID: 9458266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:46:56.685281+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:41.693334
License: Public Domain

STEVENS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
After counsel had been appointed to represent him, and while he was in custody, the defendant was visited by two agents of the prosecutor.1 Defense counsel was not present and received no advance notice of their proposed visit. The sole purpose of the visit was to obtain evidence for use at the trial. Accepting the prosecutor’s evidence as true, defendant’s participation in the crime had already been established and, therefore, no further investigation was necessary. The work of the agents was trial preparation, pure and simple.
*1355In a civil context I would consider this behavior unethical and unfair.2 In a criminal context I regard it as such a departure from “procedural regularity” as to violate the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.3 If the evidence of guilt is as strong as the prosecutor contends, such direct communication is all the more offensive because it was unnecessary. If there is doubt about defendant’s guilt, it should not be overcome by a procedure such as this.
I respectfully dissent.

. They cannot disclaim knowledge of the fact that a lawyer had been appointed to represent the defendant. See Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972); Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 262, 92 S.Ct. 495, 30 L.Ed.2d 427.

. Cf. Trans-Cold Express, Inc. v. Arrow Motor Transit, Inc., 440 F.2d 1216, 1219 (7th Cir. 1971); see ABA Code of Professional Responsibility, § DR7-104(A) (1); see also In Re Schwabe, 242 Or. 169, 408 P.2d 922 (Or.1965).

. The fact that the agents had defendant sign a standard waiver of rights form on May 18 after counsel had been appointed provides affirmative evidence that he did not fully grasp the significance of the procedural situation in which he found himself. That form recited that a lawyer “will be appointed for you . if you wish.” (Emphasis added.) There is certainly less basis for believing that this defendant understood the nature of the constitutional protection he was waiving than the defendant in United States v. Smith, 440 F.2d 521 (7th Cir. 1971), see dissenting opinion at 529, 530, 535; or that he had any better grasp of the significance of the information imparted to him by the prosecutor’s agents than did the defendant in United States ex rel. Raymond v. People, 455 F.2d 62, 66-67 (7th Cir. 1971), see separate opinions at 72-73 and 74-75.