Brooks v. State

903 So. 2d 691, 2005 WL 674817
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 24, 2005
Docket2001-CT-01826-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 903 So. 2d 691 (Brooks v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brooks v. State, 903 So. 2d 691, 2005 WL 674817 (Mich. 2005).

Opinion

903 So.2d 691 (2005)

Blaine BROOKS
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2001-CT-01826-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 24, 2005.

*693 Richard M. Goldwasser, and Paul McGerald Luckett, McComb, attorneys for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by W. Glenn Watts, attorneys for appellee.

EN BANC.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI

DICKINSON, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. The following testimony was provided by Detective Robert Holmes in the murder prosecution of Blaine Brooks:

I felt I had just a limited amount of time, before he was appointed an attorney, to try to conduct a lineup. And that's what I did.... Because ... you're going to be appointed an attorney sooner or later.
[H]e informed me ... he did not have an attorney. So at that point in time, I used my advantage. I conducted a physical lineup ... before he was appointed an attorney.... I asked him if he'd like to speak with me? And he said, no, he did not. He wanted to wait until he [sic] have an attorney for him.

¶ 2. This testimony, together with other errors discussed below, requires us to reverse this murder conviction (which the Court of Appeals has previously affirmed) and to remand this case for a new trial.

BACKGROUND FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

¶ 3. We borrow from the Court of Appeals' opinion the following recitation of facts:

On May 17, 1999, Merry Wilson was found dead in her home. Wilson died as a result of multiple stab wounds inflicted by a two-pronged fork which was recovered from her throat. The pathologist testified that Wilson had probably died sometime between the twelfth and the fifteenth of May. Wilson had also recently inherited $10,000 and her bed and mattress had been ransacked.
A neighbor, Sandra Graham, stated that she had seen an African American male leaving the victim's home in the early morning of May 13. During a photographic lineup, Graham identified Brooks as the man leaving Wilson's home that morning. Prior to this, Brooks's mother, Towanda Nobles, had told her half-sister, Sherry Maxine Hodges Smith, that Brooks told her that he had stabbed Wilson. After Smith reported this statement to the police, neither Brooks nor Nobles could be located. Brooks had taken a bus to Chicago on May 14th. Brooks was arrested *694 in Chicago in July 2000 and extradited to Mississippi in February 2001. There was a lineup at the jail, where Graham again identified Brooks as the man she had seen leaving Wilson's home the morning of May 13th.

Brooks v. State, 905 So.2d 678, 2004 WL 1516503 (¶¶ 2-3) (Miss.Ct.App.2004).

¶ 4. Because Brooks did not have counsel when he participated in the lineup, his trial counsel moved to suppress the identification, and the testimony recited above was provided at the hearing on that motion. After the trial court denied Brooks's motion to suppress the identification at the lineup, Brooks was convicted of murder and sentenced to serve life in prison. On appeal to this Court, Brooks raises the following issues:

I. Whether a defendant, who has invoked his right to counsel, later waives his Sixth Amendment right to have counsel present at his lineup when he subsequently participates in a lineup purposefully held before the defendant is appointed counsel.
II. Whether a defendant who has been denied his right to counsel at a lineup has the burden of demonstrating that the lineup was impermissibly suggestive in order to exclude evidence of the lineup identification at trial.
III. Whether an utterance made two to three days after a startling event is properly admitted into evidence under the excited utterance exception to rule against hearsay.
IV. Whether Rap Lyrics extolling murder were properly read to the jury where there was not foundation laid for their introduction into evidence.

Because issues I and II are closely related, we will discuss them together.

DISCUSSION

I. Whether a defendant, who has invoked his right to counsel, later waives his Sixth Amendment right to have counsel present at his lineup when he subsequently participates in a lineup purposefully held before the defendant is appointed counsel.
II. Whether a defendant who has been denied his right to counsel at a lineup has the burden of demonstrating that the lineup was impermissibly suggestive in order to exclude evidence of the lineup identification at trial.

¶ 5. Although not precisely stated in the issues, the crux of Brooks's argument to this Court concerning the lineup identification is that Graham's in-court identification was tainted because she had previously identified him at a physical lineup without the presence of counsel after adversarial proceedings against him had begun. We therefore will review both the in-court and lineup identifications.

¶ 6. A participant in a lineup has a constitutional right to have a lawyer present if the lineup is held after adversarial proceedings had been initiated against him. Jimpson v. State, 532 So.2d 985, 988 (Miss.1988); York v. State, 413 So.2d 1372, 1383 (Miss.1982).

¶ 7. In Coleman v. State, 592 So.2d 517 (Miss.1991), this Court held:

As a matter of the law of this state, the right to counsel attaches once the accused is in custody (a fact generating the legal conclusion that the individual is under arrest) and all reasonable security measures (of evidence and persons) have been completed. At all critical stages thereafter, the accused is of right entitled to access to counsel, absent a specific *695 knowing and intelligent waiver tied to that stage.

Id. at 520.

¶ 8. Adversarial proceedings had certainly commenced against Brooks prior to the lineup. An arrest warrant had been issued, and he had been extradited from Illinois. Furthermore, Brooks had signed a document indicating that he did not want to speak to any law enforcement authorities either in Illinois or Mississippi for any investigation.

¶ 9. In United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 236-37, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967), the United States Supreme Court held:

Since it appears that there is grave potential for prejudice, intentional or not, in the pretrial lineup, which may not be capable of reconstruction at trial, and since presence of counsel itself can often avert prejudice and assure a meaningful confrontation at trial, there can be little doubt that for Wade the post-indictment lineup was a critical stage of the prosecution at which he was as much entitled to such aid (of counsel) as at the trial itself. Thus both Wade and his counsel should have been notified of the impending lineup, and counsel's presence should have been a requisite to conduct of the lineup, absent an intelligent waiver.

Id. (citations & quotations omitted).

¶ 10. It is undisputed that adversarial proceedings had begun against Brooks at the time of the physical lineup. He had not been arraigned; and he was not represented by counsel. Accepting as true Detective Holmes's testimony, he informed Brooks that he did not have to participate in the lineup (although Brooks took the stand and denied the assertion), but he also testified that Brooks did not respond and participated in the lineup. The Court of Appeals found this lack of response to be an intelligent waiver. We disagree.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Dreshawn Sullivan v. State of Mississippi
Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2019
Rickey Portis v. State of Mississippi
245 So. 3d 457 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2018)
Jordan v. State
212 So. 3d 817 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2016)
James L. Johnson, Jr. v. State of Mississippi
204 So. 3d 763 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2016)
William Michael Jordan v. State of Mississippi
212 So. 3d 836 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2015)
Marlon Latodd Howell v. State of Mississippi
163 So. 3d 240 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2014)
Holmes v. State
306 P.3d 415 (Nevada Supreme Court, 2013)
State v. Ortiz
2013 UT App 100 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2013)
Brown v. Commonwealth
313 S.W.3d 577 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2010)
Smith v. State
977 So. 2d 1227 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2008)
Rankin v. State
963 So. 2d 1255 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2007)
Lattimore v. State
958 So. 2d 192 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2007)
Hudson v. State
977 So. 2d 344 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2007)
Whitehead v. State
967 So. 2d 56 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2007)
Williams v. State
960 So. 2d 506 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2006)
Terry Lee Lattimore v. State of Mississippi
Mississippi Supreme Court, 2002

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
903 So. 2d 691, 2005 WL 674817, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brooks-v-state-miss-2005.