Court Opinion

ID: 9466322
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:12:09.480578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:40.062427
License: Public Domain

HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result, but also I agree with Judge Morgan’s interpretation of the defendant’s brief conversation with Johnson. Considering the conversation and the circumstances in which the conversation took place, I do not construe it as a request for counsel, but at most as only a way of telling Johnson the defendant did not care to talk to him. In discussing waiver, Judge Swygert notes that after the Johnson conversation the defendant never again expressed concern over lack of counsel. If there was in fact a quick change of mind by defendant as to the need for counsel, it appears to have occurred without reason or explanation. I am satisfied that there was no change of mind. The defendant’s obvious lack of concern about having counsel expressed shortly after the Johnson conversation is entitled to some weight in interpreting that conversation.