Court Opinion

ID: 9779761
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 00:42:56.026485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:24:07.350748
License: Public Domain

Cordy, J.
(concurring). I agree that the police in this case did not adequately inform the defendant of his attorney’s efforts to render legal assistance. I also agree with the court’s careful analysis of why, in the circumstances of this case, the admission of the defendant’s “postbreak” statements was not harmless. I write separately to express my view that the inadequacy lay in the police not informing the defendant that his attorney had telephoned, wanted to talk to him, and was on his way to the station. This is information necessary to “actualize” the abstract right to counsel within the meaning of art. 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights as we have interpreted it in Commonwealth v. Mavredakis, 430 Mass. 848, 859-860 (2000). I do not agree that the police had any obligation to communicate the substance of any legal advice the attorney may have wanted to convey to his client. In this regard, I agree with Justice Gants that if a suspect wishes to hear his attorney’s legal advice before continuing with the interrogation, he may simply ask to do so.