Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the Court in which
A Tarrant County jury convicted appellant of the murder of his wife. The trial
We granted the State’s petition for discretionary review to clarify the distinction after Montejo between the Fifth Amendment right to interrogation counsel and the Sixth Amendment right to trial counsel.
I.
A. Factual Background. .
Arlington paramedics responded to a 911 call and found appellant and his wife, Michelle, in their apartment, both bleeding from stab wounds. Michelle, who had been stabbed fifty-five times, died before the paramedics arrived. Appellant was taken to the hospital. A serrated kitchen knife with a seven-inch blade was found on the bathroom floor. Based on their initial investigation, detectives believed that appellant had killed Michelle and then stabbed himself. After several days, they obtained an arrest warrant. Then Detectives Nutt and Frias took Judge Maddock, a local magistrate, to appellant’s hospital room.
Judge Maddock testified at the suppression hearing that she normally performs magistration hearings at the Arlington City Jail, but she went to the hospital for appellant’s hearing, as she had done in some other cases, “due to the policy of the sheriffs office [that it will not] transfer ... a Defendant until he has been fully magis-trated.” The two detectives drove Judge Maddock to the hospital and entered appellant’s room with her. They all introduced themselves. Judge Maddock, who
The detectives then left the room and stood outside while Judge Maddock arraigned appellant. She read appellant a Spanish version of the Article 15.17 “Adult Warning Form,” although she had only an English version for him to sign.
Judge Maddock stated that, in her opinion, appellant’s decision to speak with the detectives was free and voluntary and there was “absolutely no coercion.” She believed that, when appellant asked for counsel, he was asking for trial counsel. She said that appellant never indicated that he wanted a lawyer to be present when detectives questioned him. Judge Maddock then went into the hall and told the detectives that appellant “had initially asked for a lawyer, but [that] she had been told by Mr. Pecina that he wanted to talk to them.” She gave the signed Article 15.17 form to the detectives, and she waited in the hallway.
Detectives Frias and Nutt then came back into appellant’s room. Det. Frias spoke Spanish and explained to appellant who they were and that they wanted to question him about his wife’s murder. Appellant said that he wanted to talk with them, so Det. Frias wrote, in Spanish, on the 15.17 form, “I asked for a lawyer, but also I wanted to speak with the Arlington police.” The officers told appellant that they would record the interview, and as they prepared their equipment, Det. Frias gave appellant the Miranda
Appellant testified that, if an attorney had advised him not to speak with police, he would not have talked with them. The rest of his testimony dealt with whether he was advised that he could contact the Mexican Consulate.
The trial judge denied the motion to suppress. He found that appellant was fully informed of his rights and “indicated that although he did want a lawyer, that he wished to also talk with detectives from Arlington, meaning that he basically was waiving his rights at that time.”
B. Appellate History.
On original submission, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals affirmed appellant’s murder conviction, finding that, when appellant agreed to speak with police in response to the magistrate’s question, he initiated contact with police.
While this case was pending in the court of appeals on remand, the United States Supreme Court overruled Michigan v. Jackson — the very case that we relied on in holding that appellant’s invocation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel at the magistration hearing rendered his subsequent waiver of the right to counsel for the police-initiated interview invalid — in Montego v. Louisiana.
Over the past four decades, the jurisprudence concerning the Fifth Amendment right to counsel during police interrogation and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel at all “critical” stages of criminal proceedings had become intertwined in complex and confusing ways. It was increasingly difficult for courts to determine which right can be invoked when and whether invocation of the right to counsel under one amendment invoked the right to counsel under the other amendment. Finally, in Montejo, the United States Supreme Court disentangled the two right-to-counsel constitutional provisions and clarified their separate purposes and applications by overruling Michigan v. Jackson and reaffirming the bright-line rule of Miranda and Edwards.
This case is an exemplar of Justice Jackson’s oft quoted warning that this Court “is forever adding new stories to the temples of constitutional law, and the temples have a way of collapsing when one story too many is added. We today remove Michigan v. Jackson’s fourth story of prophylaxis.14 ”
We examine how the lessons of Montejo apply in this case, one that is factually very similar to Montejo.
A. The Fifth Amendment Right to Interrogation Counsel.
The Fifth Amendment prohibits the government from compelling a criminal
Under Edwards v. Arizona,
It is the police officer or other law-enforcement agent who administers Miranda warnings, and he does so immediately before custodial interrogation.
We have in fact never held that a person can invoke his Miranda rights anticipa-torily, in a context other than “custodial interrogation” — which a preliminary hearing will not always, or even usually, involve.... Most rights must be asserted when the government seeks to take the action they protect against. The fact that we have allowed the Miranda right to counsel, once asserted, to be effective with respect to future custodial interrogation does not necessarily mean that we will allow it to be asserted initially outside the context of custodial interrogation, with similar future effect.29
Thus, in Montejo, the Supreme Court stated that, under its Fifth Amendment jurisprudence, “a defendant who does not want to speak to the police without counsel present need only say as much when he is first approached and given the Miranda warnings.”
Once formal adversary proceedings begin, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel applies in exactly the same way as the Fifth Amendment right applies
B. The Sixth Amendment Right to Trial Counsel.
The Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches once the “adversary judicial process has been initiated,” and it guarantees “a defendant the right to have counsel present at all ‘critical’ stages of the criminal proceedings.”
In Michigan v. Jackson, the Supreme Court had held that “if police initiate interrogation after a defendant’s assertion, at an arraignment or similar proceeding, of his right to counsel, any waiver of the defendant’s right to counsel for that police-initiated interrogation is invalid.”
Furthermore, the Jackson rule simply did not take account of the practical realities and goals of the arraignment event and its relationship to the separate event of custodial interrogation. When a person is brought before a magistrate, told that
As Montejo concluded, this ambiguity is easy to resolve: a Sixth Amendment request for an attorney at an arraignment, initial appearance, or Article 15.17 hearing is a request for the guiding hand of counsel for all judicial criminal proceedings. If the defendant also wishes to invoke his Sixth Amendment right to counsel during the “critical stage” of post-arraignment custodial interrogation,
Thus, both the Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to counsel during custodial interrogation depend upon the same thing: “What matters for Miranda and Edwards is what happens when the defendant is approached for interrogation, and (if he consents) what happens during the interrogation — not what happened at any preliminary hearing.”
Distilled to its essence, Montejo means that a defendant’s invocation of his right to counsel at his Article 15.17 hearing says nothing about his possible invocation of his right to counsel during later police-initiated custodial interrogation. The magistration hearing is not an interrogation event. An uncharged suspect may invoke his Fifth Amendment right to counsel (and a defendant who has been arraigned may invoke his Sixth Amendment right to counsel) for purposes of custodial interrogation when the police or other law-enforcement agents approach him and give him his Miranda warnings. That is the time and place to either invoke or waive the right to counsel for purposes of police questioning.
C. Standard of Review
In reviewing claims concerning Miranda violations and the admission of statements made as the result of custodial interrogation, we conduct the bifurcated
However, the Supreme Court has held that, in deciding whether an accused “actually invoked his right to counsel,” reviewing courts must use an objective standard “[t]o avoid difficulties of proof and to provide guidance to officers conducting interrogations^]”
With that general background, we turn to the present case.
III.
In this case, there were two separate events: magistration followed by a custodial interrogation.
Under the totality of these circumstances, we agree with the trial judge that an objective and reasonable police officer, conducting a custodial interrogation, would conclude that appellant had voluntarily waived both his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to counsel for purposes of the custodial questioning by Detectives Frias and Nutt. Because appellant was in custody at the time the police questioned him, he had a Fifth Amendment right to counsel if he wished to invoke it. Because formal adversary proceedings had begun against appellant and were triggered by Judge Maddock’s raagistration, he had a Sixth Amendment right to counsel if he wished to invoke it. He could invoke either or both in precisely the same manner — by telling the officers, after they gave him the Miranda warnings, that he wished to have an attorney before speaking to them. He did not do so. He, therefore, waived both his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to counsel during custodial interrogation.
A majority of the court of appeals, in its opinion, acknowledged the Supreme Court’s decision in Montejo, and stated that “Miranda and Edwards are still the law for suspects in custody subjected to police interrogation.... To protect the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, the police may not initiate custodial interrogation of a suspect who has previously requested assistance of counsel.” Not exactly. Under Montejo, and following Miranda, Edwards, and Minnick, the correct statement is, “To protect the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, the police may not continue or re-initiate custodial interrogation of a suspect who has previously requested assistance of counsel after the police informed him of his right to counsel at the beginning of a custodial interrogation.”
Justice Holman, in his dissenting opinion in the court below, correctly noted that “the ‘Miranda-Edwards regime’ does not apply to ‘non interrogative types of
Because, under Montejo, appellant never invoked his Fifth or Sixth Amendment rights to counsel during custodial interrogation, we conclude that the trial judge properly denied appellant’s motion to suppress his statements made as a result of that police questioning. We therefore reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and affirm the trial court’s judgment.
Notes
. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17.
. Pecina v. State,
. The State's Grounds for Review are as follows:
(1) The Fort Worth Court’s opinion improperly conflates Appellant’s noninterrogative arraignment with his subsequent interrogation.
(2) The Fort Worth Court misapplied this Court’s opinion in Hughen v. State.
(3) Appellant could not anticipatorily invoke his Fifth Amendment rights at a noninterro-gative arraignment.
.Judge Maddock read the Spanish version of the rights printed on the English version, including the following:
(2) You have a right to hire a lawyer and have him/her present prior to and during any interview arid questioning by peace officers or attorneys representing [the] state;
(3) If you cannot afford a lawyer, you have the right to request the appointment of a lawyer to be present prior to and during any such interview and you have the right to have an attorney appointed to represent you if you cannot afford an attorney. This means you may obtain your own lawyer or have a lawyer appointed for you. You may have reasonable time and opportunity to consult your lawyer if you desire. [The form then describes the paperwork necessary to obtain indigent status for counsel];
(4) You have the right to. remain silent. You do not have to speak to the police;
(5) You are not required to make a statement, and any statement you make can and [may be] used against you in court;
(6) You have the right to stop any interviewing or questioning at any time. If you decide to answer questions, you may stop the questioning at any time;
(7) You have the right to have an examining trial if you are charged with a felony offense; and
(8) You may be subject to deportation if you are not a U.S. citizen.
. Miranda v. Arizona,
. In his taped statement, appellant said that he did not remember much about the day his wife died. He said that they had argued about her not wanting to be with him. He became angry, and they started to fight. Appellant admitted that he had cut his wife and
. Pecina v. State, No. 2-05-45 6-CR,
. Id.
.
. Pecina v. State,
. Montejo v. Louisiana,
. Pecina v. State,
. Montejo,
. Montejo,
. Jesse Jay Montejo was arrested for murder and questioned by police detectives. He admitted that he had shot and killed the victim in a botched burglary. Several days later he was charged with murder and, at a preliminary hearing, the judge ordered that counsel be appointed to represent him.
.We refer to this right to counsel as the "Fifth Amendment right to interrogation counsel” to distinguish it from the "Sixth Amendment right to trial counsel." To be clear, this
is something of a misnomer to the extent that it indicates that the Fifth Amendment itself creates a right to counsel. The rights created by Miranda, including the right to have counsel present during custodial interrogation, "are not themselves rights protected by the Constitution but [are] instead measures to insure that the right against compulsory self-incrimination [is] protected.” However, because of the pervasiveness of the term’s use in the cases of the Supreme Court ... interpreting the right to counsel created by Miranda, we use it here.Goodwin v. Johnson, 132 F.3d 162 , 179 n. 12 (5th Cir.1997) (quoting Duckworth v. Eagan,492 U.S. 195 , 203,109 S.Ct. 2875 ,106 L.Ed.2d 166 (1989)) (all other citations and quotation marks omitted).
. U.S. Const, amend V (“No person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself”).
.
. Id. at 441,
. Miranda,
.
. Id. at 485,
. Michigan v. Harvey,
. Texas v. Cobb,
. Montejo,
. Miranda,
. Id. at 467,
.
.
. Montejo,
. Id.
. Id. (noting that cases like Jackson "protect the right to have counsel during custodial interrogation — which right happens to be guaranteed (once the adversary judicial process has begun) by two sources of law. Since the right under both sources is waived using the same procedure, doctrines ensuring vol-untariness of the Fifth Amendment waiver simultaneously ensure the voluntariness of the Sixth Amendment waiver”) (citations omitted).
. Id. at 2090.
. Montejo,
. Rothgery v. Gillespie County,
. Michigan v. Jackson,
. Montejo,
. See Montejo,
. See Montejo,
. Montejo,
.Id. at 2091.
.
. Leza,
. Davis v. United States,
. Id. at 459,
. The court of appeals mistakenly concluded that, during the magistration, appellant was "approached for interrogation.” Pecina III,
. Indeed, such a request would be entirely inconsistent with the words that appellant actually used. See, e.g., McNeil v. Wisconsin,
. The article 15.17 hearing assures suspects that judges, not police, are in charge of the justice system in America. As Professors Dix and Schmolensky have noted,
A primary function of the appearance before the magistrate, of course, is the provision of the interrogation warnings, but by aperson with less interest in having waivers than interrogating officers. In addition, presentation demonstrates to suspects that the law enforcement agency holding them acknowledges outside limits upon its power over suspects. Both impartial warnings and the demonstration of judicial dominance may reduce the inherently coercive impact of later custodial interrogation upon suspects.
41 G. Dix & J. SCH.MOLENSKY, TEXAS PRACTICE Series- Criminal Practice and Procedure § 20:5 (3d ed.2011).
. Appellant aptly notes, "Once counsel is invoked, whether it is called 5th Amendment invocation or a 6th Amendment invocation is a distinction without a lot of difference.” Appellant's Brief at 6. He is correct in the context of post-arraignment custodial interrogation, as a defendant has both a Fifth and Sixth Amendment right to counsel during that interrogation and either (or both) is triggered by the police giving him the Miranda warnings.
. See Montejo,
. Pecina III,
. In Hughen, the defendant was taken to a magistrate who read him his rights under article 15.17.
. Pecina III,
. Id. at 272.
Concurrence Opinion
filed a concurring opinion in which JOHNSON, J., joined.
Although I join the majority opinion’s determination that Supreme Court precedent compels a conclusion that neither the Fifth nor the Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution was violated, I write separately to observe that a different outcome might result under the Texas Constitution and state statutes. The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure provides additional rights to appellant, Alfredo Ley-va Pecina, beyond those provided by the United States Constitution. These additional rights are the magistrate warnings required by Article 15.17 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Tex.Code Crim. Proo. art. 15.17.
The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure describes a magistrate’s duties, as follows:
The magistrate shall inform in clear language the person arrested ... of the accusation against him, ... of his right to retain counsel, of his right to remain silent, of his right to have an attorney present during any interview with peace officers,.... The magistrate shall also inform the person arrested of the person’s right to request the appointment of counsel if the person cannot afford counsel.
Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17. Consistent with this statutory requirement, the magistrate in this case advised appellant by stating, in pertinent part,
(2) You have a right to hire a lawyer and have him/her present prior to and during any interview and questioning by peace officers or attorneys representing [the] state;
(3) If you cannot afford a lawyer, you have the right to request the appointment of a lawyer to be present prior to and during any such interview and you have the right to have an attorney appointed to represent you if you cannot afford an attorney. This means you may obtain your own lawyer or have a lawyer appointed for you. You may have reasonable time and opportunity to consult your lawyer if you desire....
After informing him of his Article 15.17 rights to have an attorney present during any interview with peace officers and to have an attorney represent him in court, the magistrate asked appellant if he “want[ed] a court appointed attorney. And he stated he did.” Following this response, the magistrate asked appellant, “Do you still want to talk to [the detectives]?” He replied that he did. The magistrate testified that she believed he was asking for an attorney for trial proceedings rather than for speaking to the police officers.
As the State points out, a suspect’s request for counsel must be unambiguous and sufficiently clear that a reasonable person in the circumstances would understand the statement to be a request for an attorney. See Davis v. United States,
As the majority opinion points out, appellant’s request for an attorney was, at most, a pre-invocation of his right to counsel, which attached at the time of the later police interrogation. Because Supreme Court precedent dictates that pre-invocation of a defendant’s Miranda rights is ineffective under the United States Constitution, I agree with the majority’s determination that there is no federal constitutional violation here. See McNeil v. Wisconsin,
Although there is no federal constitutional violation under Supreme Court precedent, the magistrate’s failure to provide an attorney for interrogation after one was requested may violate Article 15.17 because the magistrate advised appellant of his right to have an attorney for interrogation and he requested one, but none was provided. See Tex.Code Crim. Proo. art. 15.17. If this were a violation of Article
The clear intent of Article 15.17 is to ensure that a defendant is advised of his rights to an attorney for interrogation and courtroom proceedings. See Tex.Code CRIM. Proc. art. 15.17. But the current scheme seems to have the opposite effect when the magistrate warnings come before the police officer’s interrogation. The magistrate warnings create a confusing situation when the magistrate informs the defendant of the right to have an attorney during questioning but then fails to provide one, and then the police advise him of that same right to an attorney that was asked for minutes earlier but not provided. A defendant might reasonably surmise that the government does not really intend to provide him an attorney during questioning because his first request for an attorney during questioning was ignored. Making matters worse, the defendant is never given any explanation concerning the magistrate’s failure to provide an attorney pursuant to his request. All he knows is that his request was ignored. The Legislature could easily fix this problem by adding one sentence to the Article 15.17 admonishments: “If you desire to have an attorney present during police interrogation, you must make that request at the time of the police questioning.”
With these comments, I join the majority opinion in this case.
. The Code of Criminal Procedure advises magistrates to clearly explain to defendants their rights. See Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17 (directing magistrates to inform defendants of their "right to retain counsel” in "clear language”). A magistrate, therefore, could add this additional warning even if the Legislature fails to amend the statute.
Dissenting Opinion
filed a dissenting opinion.
In summarizing the substantive Fifth and Sixth Amendment regime in place after the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in Montejo v. Louisiana,
Distilled to its essence, Montejo means that a defendant’s invocation of his right to counsel at his Article 15.17 hearing says nothing about his possible invocation of his right to counsel during later police-initiated custodial interrogation. The magistration hearing is not an interrogation event. An uncharged suspect may invoke his Fifth Amendment right to counsel (and a defendant who has been arraigned may invoke his Sixth Amendment right to counsel) for purpose of custodial interrogation when the police or other law-enforcement agents approach him and give him his Miranda warnings. That is the time and place to either invoke or waive the right to counsel for purposes of police questioning.2
I gather that this conclusion stems from the observation, identified earlier in the Court’s opinion as deriving from a footnote
This is not a case that turns on the credibility of the witnesses at the suppression hearing or the reliability of their testimony, neither of which is disputed. Two Arlington police detectives picked up Judge Maddock from the municipal courthouse and took her with them to the appellant’s hospital room, where he was already under the guard of a Dallas County deputy sheriff. Pointing to the detectives, Judge Maddock told the appellant, “They are here. They would like to speak to you.” Judge Maddock remembered that the appellant either nodded or said “yes,” thus “acknowledging]” her statement as to why the detectives were present.
Judge Maddock testified that she took this to mean that the appellant wanted her to appoint an attorney to represent him “for court[,]” for “these proceedings.” She did not elaborate, and it is unclear to me why she would think so, since the warnings she had just administered to the appellant made no allusion whatsoever to the right to an attorney for trial. She told the waiting detectives that the appellant “had initially asked for a lawyer,” but that he had then told her “that he wanted to talk to” the detectives. From their respective testimonies, one gets the distinct impression (or at least I do) that the detectives understood Maddock to mean that the appellant had first indicated that he wanted
Of course, it is also undisputed that what I take from the circumstances to be a clear invocation of the right to interrogation counsel — not trial counsel — occurred in front of the magistrate alone, out of the immediate presence of the interrogating officers themselves. Although I am not entirely certain, I think what the Court is saying today is that this makes all the difference because what happened in the hospital room in the absence of the detectives was merely a “magistration” and not an “interrogation event.” But even the Court seems to concede that an “interrogation event” may be initiated either by law-enforcement or some “other state agent[ ].”
“Most rights[,]” Justice Scalia observed in his footnote in McNeil, “must be asserted when the government seeks to take the action [those rights] protect against.”
I agree with the court of appeals’s conclusion that the appellant’s Fifth Amendment right to interrogation counsel was violated, and I would therefore affirm its judgment. Because the Court does not, I respectfully dissent.
.
. Majority opinion, at 78.
. Id. at 76 (quoting McNeil v. Wisconsin,
. Id. at 80.
. Later in her testimony, Judge Maddock would clarify that the appellant "never said to me that he wanted to talk to” the detectives. I take this to mean that she did not construe his initial acknowledgment that the detectives would like to "speak” to him as an indication that he was willing to do so.
.Majority opinion, at 72 n. 4.
. Majority opinion, at 79.
. State v. Gobert,
. The court of appeals majority’s view is well expressed and bears repeating:
We ... disagree with the dissent's assertion that whatever occurred at the article 15.17 hearing did not implicate Edwards [v. Arizona,451 U.S. 477 ,101 S.Ct. 1880 ,68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981)] because Pecina had somehow "not yet been approached for interrogation.” Dissenting op. at 272. The record belies any such interpretation. The detectives did not just happen to show up at Pecina’s hospital room. They went to the hospital to arrest Pecina and to interrogate him and brought with them the magistrate to administer his Miranda warnings; they walked into his room with the magistrate; the magistrate explained to Pecina that the detectives wanted to talk to him; and they waited in the hall while she administered the warnings. After he had invoked his right to counsel, they proceeded to re-enter the room and conduct their interrogation after reading Pecina his Miranda rights a second and third time.
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Nor did Pecina invoke his Fifth Amendment right to counsel "anticipatorily,” as the dissent asserts, using a term referenced in dictum by the majority opinion in Monte-jo. ... Pecina asked for appointed counsel in response to being advised that he was entitled to counsel during any questioning and while the police waited to do just that. His request was precisely for the sort of assistance of counsel that is the subject of Miranda.
Pecina v. State,
.Majority opinion, at 76.
. McNeil, supra, at 182 n. 3,
. See note 9, ante.
.Gobert, supra, at 893.
