Court Opinion

ID: 9672917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:02:47.999411+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:19.194369
License: Public Domain

ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). Even if I were to agree that the test announced in Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 104 (1975), is sufficient under the Wisconsin Constitution to enforce the privilege against self-incrimination, I could not agree that the record in this case supports the conclusion that Leach’s right to cut *218off questioning was “scrupulously honored.” Indeed, the limited holding in Mosley would seem to compel a determination that Leach’s statement was the product of the “inherently compelling pressures” of custodial interrogation. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 467 (1966).
The United States Supreme Court determined on the basis of the following factors that Mosley’s right to cut off questioning had been “fully respected”: (1) before his initial interrogation, Mosley was carefully advised of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona; (2) when Mosley stated that he did not want to discuss the robberies for which he had been arrested, Detective Cowie immediately ceased the interrogation and did not try either to resume the questioning or in any way to persuade Mosley to reconsider his position; (3) after an interval of more than two hours, Mosley was given full Miranda warnings by another police officer, who questioned him at another location about a murder in which Mosley had been implicated but which was unrelated to the robberies for which he had been arrested; and (4) the questioning by the officer who conducted the second interrogation focused exclusively on the unrelated murder and was thus quite consistent with reasonable interpretation of Mosley’s earlier refusal to answer any questions about the robberies. 423 U.S. at 104-105. These facts led the Mosley court to conclude that “This is not a case . . . where the police failed to honor a decision of a person in custody to cut off questioning, either by refusing to discontinue the interrogation upon request or by persisting in repeated efforts to wear down his resistance and make him change his mind.” 423 U.S. at 105-06.
The case at bar is not one in which the accused’s exercise of his constitutional right to remain silent was “scrupulously honored.” To the contrary, the *219record shows that Leach’s interrogators refused to take “No” for an answer.
Leach was first questioned at this home at approximately 10:50 p.m. after being given full Miranda warnings. After stating that he had returned home from work that evening at 8:30 p.m., Leach told the arresting officers that he would answer no further questions about the attempted rape. Although no further questions were asked at this point, it appears that Leach was probably in the presence of law enforcement personnel for the following two and one-half hours.
At 1:25 a.m. Leach was taken by Officer Duane Luick to the vice squad interview room. Although he had stated at the time of his arrest that he wished to answer no further questions about the attempted rape, Leach was again given Miranda warnings and asked if he wished to make a statement. Leach again invoked his right to remain silent, and Officer Luick left the room. Leach sat alone in the interview room until Officer Luick reappeared, some fifteen minutes later. It was at this point that Leach, unprompted by any overt questioning, stated that he had been drinking too much and that when he drinks he cannot control himself. Officer Luick asked Leach if he had anything further to say, and Leach said that he did not and that he wanted to confer with an attorney.
At about 2:00 a.m. — approximately twenty minutes after Leach said he did not want to talk without an attorney — while Leach was being escorted to the City Jail, he was intercepted by Detective Robert Puls and taken to an interview room. Detective Puls, explaining that he was investigating “unsolved murders,” gave Leach his third set of Miranda warnings and told Leach that he would not ask him about the attempted rape charge but would limit his questions to the unsolved murders. Leach agreed to talk about the murders;
*220The record does not support a conclusion that Leach was in fact suspected of involvement in the unsolved murders, and indeed Leach was never charged with murder. However, in questioning Leach about the murders, Detective Puls did elicit information of significance to the attempted rape charge. Detective Puls asked Leach about the automobiles he drove and about his prior arrests. It was the car Leach had been driving which led to his arrest in the attempted rape charge; and Leach’s arrest record included several charges of rape and attempted rape. To quote Detective Puls: “It was during this period that he [Leach] became very emotional . . . tears came to his eyes; and it appeared he wanted to cry ... he stated because he has a problem, he gets sexual urges to molest women . . . .”
The United States Supreme Court stated in Mosley that “[t]he requirement that law enforcement authorities must respect a person’s exercise of [his option to terminate questioning] counteracts the coercive pressures of the custodial setting. We therefore conclude that the admissibility of statements obtained after the person in custody has decided to remain silent depends under Miranda on whether his ‘right to cut off questioning’ was ‘scrupulously honored.’ ” 423 U.S. at 104. Leach’s right to cut off questioning was not respected.
The majority likens the facts of this case to the factual situation in Mosley. Yet in Mosley, law enforcement officials “did not try either to resume the questioning or in any way to persuade Mosley to reconsider his position” once Mosley had invoked his right to remain silent. 423 U.S. at 104. In the case at bar, law enforcement officials resumed their questioning about the attempted rape two and one-half hours after Leach had first invoked his right to silence. Moreover, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that when Officer Luick left the interview room, only to reappear some fifteen *221minutes after Leach had for the second time refused to make a statement, Luick’s intent was to “persuade [Leach] to reconsider his position.”
In Mosley, the second interrogation did not undercut Mosley’s previous decision not to answer inquiries about the robberies for which he had been arrested. It focused exclusively on the unrelated murder, and was thus “quite consistent with a reasonable interpretation of Mosley’s earlier refusal to answer any questions about the robberies.” 423 U.S. at 105. In the case at bar, Detective Puls’ questions — whether or not by design — elicited information relevant to the charge about which Leach had at this point three times asserted his right to remain silent.
To hold that Leach’s right to cut off questioning was “scrupulously honored” simply because he was advised of his rights by three different officers whose questioning about ostensibly different crimes persisted far into the night is to stray far from the limited holding in Mosley. Because the state failed to show that Leach’s statements were not the result of “repeated efforts to wear down his resistance and make him change his mind,” 423 U.S. at 105-06, the statements made after Leach invoked his right to silence should not have been admitted.
Because Leach, unlike Mosley, asserted his right to counsel, I have reservations whether this case is governed by Mosley.1
As the majority opinion notes, the United States Supreme Court specifically said that the Mosley case did *222not speak: to the procedures to be followed when the accused asks to consult with a lawyer. Mosley had made no such request. The Supreme Court went on to explain in footnote 7, only partially quoted by the majority, that “those procedures [to be used when the accused asks to consult with counsel] are detailed in the Miranda opinion as follows:
“ ‘If the individual states that he wants an attorney, the interrogation must cease until an attorney is present. At that time, the individual must have an opportunity to confer with the attorney and to have him present during any subsequent questioning. If the individual cannot obtain an attorney and he indicates that he wants one before speaking to police, they must respect his decision to remain silent.
“ ‘This does not mean, as some have suggested, that each police station must have a “station house lawyer” present at all times to advise prisoners. It does mean, however, that if police propose to interrogate a person they must make known to him that he is entitled to a lawyer and that if he cannot afford one, a lawyer will be provided for him prior to any interrogation. If authorities conclude that they will not provide counsel during a reasonable period of time in which investigation in the field is carried out, they may refrain from doing so without violating the person’s Fifth Amendment privilege so long as they do not question him during that time.’ ” Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. at 474, quoted in Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. at 101, n. 7.2
*223Even if Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387 (1977), cited by the majority, is authority for the proposition that an accused may waive his previously asserted demand for counsel, Mosley itself lends no support to the majority’s apparent conclusion that Mosley’s test for the admissibility of statements obtained after invocation of the right to silence is sufficient as well to test the admissibility of statements obtained after invocation of the right to counsel.
It was incumbent upon the State to prove that Leach knowingly and intentionally relinquished his right to counsel, and it was incumbent upon the court to indulge in every reasonable presumption against waiver. Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 404 (1977). Under the circumstances of this case, this court should not hold that Leach waived his right to counsel.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.

 See People v. Washington, 68 Ill.2d 186, 369 N.E.2d 57, cert. den. 56 L. Ed.2d 72 (1978), where questioning continued after the defendant requested an attorney and the court relying on Mosley said that “the instant ease involves the right to counsel, as distinguished from the right to remain silent.”
See also Micale v. State, 76 Wis.2d 370, 373, 251 N.W.2d 458 (1977).

 See also footnote 10 of the majority opinion Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. at 104, n. 10, which states:
“10. The dissenting opinion asserts that Miranda established a requirement that once a person has indicated a desire to remain silent, questioning may be resumed only when counsel is present. Post, at 116-117, 96 S. Ct. at 332, 333. But clearly the Court in Miranda imposed no such requirement, for it distinguished between the procedural safeguards triggered by a request to remain silent and a request for an attorney and directed that ‘the interrogation must cease until an attorney is present’ only ‘[i]f the individual states that he wants an attorney.’ [384 U.S. 436, 474, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 1620,16 L. Ed.2d 694, 723.]”
*223Justice White, in a concurring opinion in Mosley (423 U.S. at 110, n. 2), noted:
“2. The question of the proper procedure following expression hy an individual of his desire to consult counsel is not presented in this case. It is sufficient to note that the reasons to keep the lines of communication between the authorities and the accused open when the accused has chosen to make his own decisions are not present when he indicates instead that he wishes legal advice with respect thereto. The authorities may then communicate with him through an attorney. More to the point, the accused having expressed his own view that he is not competent to deal with the authorities without legal advice, a later decision at the authorities’ insistence to make a statement without counsel’s presence may properly be viewed with skepticism.”