Jeffery Lee Griffin v. James A. Lynaugh, Director, Texas Department of Corrections, Respondent

823 F.2d 856
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 10, 1987
Docket86-2781
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 823 F.2d 856 (Jeffery Lee Griffin v. James A. Lynaugh, Director, Texas Department of Corrections, Respondent) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jeffery Lee Griffin v. James A. Lynaugh, Director, Texas Department of Corrections, Respondent, 823 F.2d 856 (5th Cir. 1987).

Opinions

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

The primary question presented in this habeas corpus death case is whether, under Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981), Jeffery Lee Griffin’s confession was improperly admitted against him in the Texas state trial court, because, as he contends, the police did not permanently refrain from interrogating him after he stated, “I think I want to talk to my lawyer.” We hold that the petitioner’s statement was an unambiguous limited request and cannot be interpreted as an invocation of his general right to counsel; thus, because the police fully honored Griffin’s request to speak to his counsel, the question whether Griffin waived an invoked right to counsel, under Edwards v. Arizona, is not raised in this case. Consequently, Griffin’s confession was properly admitted, and we deny his request for ha-beas relief.1

I

On Monday, March 12, 1979, at about 11:45 p.m., Griffin informed Frank Chapa, a friend of Griffin, that Daniel Sobotik, the manager of the convenience store where Chapa worked, had been kidnapped. According to the statement Griffin gave to the police that night, he saw Sobotik and Horatio DeLeon, a seven-year part-time employee of the store, leaving with two men; when Griffin spoke to Sobotik, the men hit Sobotik, fired shots at Griffin and drove away in Sobotik’s car with Sobotik and DeLeon. Sobotik’s car was found at 7 a.m. on March 13,1979; inside the car were the bodies of Sobotik and DeLeon.

Later in the day of March 13, Griffin arrived at the police station and repeated the statement he had given the night before. At that time he agreed to take a polygraph examination. The test indicated deception, and Griffin was arrested at 1:15 p.m. and taken before a magistrate who advised him of his constitutional rights. Griffin did not request an attorney at this time. At trial, Officer Doug Bostock described what happened next:

A. He was returned to the interview room in the Homicide Division, and we again went over his legal rights to make sure he understood them, sir.
[Q.] How did you do that? Did you take the warnings from a card? Did you taken them from a confession form?
A. We used the same warning the magistrate did, sir, and went over each point.
[858]*858Q. Did you question him as to whether or not he understood what each one of these rights meant[?]
A. Yes, sir, we did.
Q. Did you tell him that he had a right to employ a lawyer, as reflected in there?
A. We did, sir, and he said he had a lawyer.
Q. Did you ask him whether or not he knew he had a right to remain silent?
A. Yes, sir, we did.
Q. Did he understand that?
A. Yes, sir, he did.
Q. Did you tell him that he had a right to have a court appointed lawyer, if he couldn’t afford a lawyer?
A. Yes, sir, we did.
Q. Did he understand that concept?
A. Yes, sir, he replied he had a lawyer.
Q. He didn’t want a court appointed lawyer, as far as you could tell?
A. He didn’t want any lawyer, sir.
Q. Did you tell him that if he elected not to remain silent, that what he said would be taken down and probably used against him?
A. Yes, sir, we did.
Q. Is that reflected on the warning that we are talking about?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did he say he understood that?
A. Yes, sir, he did.
Q. Did he say at that point and time that he wanted to talk to you?
A. We asked him if he wished to talk to us, after all of this, and he said: Yes, I’ll talk to you.
Q. Did he talk to you freely and voluntarily?
A. Yes, sir, he did.
Q. How long did you talk to him while he was there in the interrogation room?
A. He talked to us until around 3:00 o’clock.
Q. So this would be from 2:00 o’clock to 3:00 o’clock?
A. Probably about 1:45 to about 3:00 o’clock, yes, sir.
Q. What were you talking about then? Were you talking about the previous statement or what?
A. We talked about the previous statement and some of his background, some of his way of life and so forth, where he lived, about the investigation itself, and then about 3:00 o’clock that afternoon, he looked at us and said: / think I want to talk to my lawyer.
Q. What did you do then?
A. I asked him who his attorney was and he said it was Mr. Jennings.
I pulled out a telephone book, looked up the number, dialed the number, gave him the telephone.
Q. Is that Tom Jennings?
A. I believe that’s his first name, yes, sir.
Q. Is that the person you dialed, in any event?
A. Yes, sir. I called his office at which time I gave Mr. Griffin the telephone, and Detective Schultz and I stepped out of the office.
Q. What happened then?
A. He talked on the telephone sir. We didn’t listen to the conversation. We left the door open where we could observe him, but we did not listen to the conversation.
Q. How long did the conversation take place?
A. Roughly between five and ten minutes, I believe, sir.
Q. This would have been sometime after 3:00 o’clock, between 3:00 o’clock—
A. It was right around 3:00 o’clock when he stated that he would like to talk to his lawyer, that he had better talk to his lawyer, and then, after he hung up, we returned in there, and he advised us that he had, in fact, talked to his attorney, and about 3:30, his attorney called back and asked to talk to him.
Again, we put him on the telephone and we left the office.
Q. Between 3:00 and 3:30, did you talk to him about the case?
[859]*859A. We talked to Mr. Griffin mostly, I think, about what his attorney was advising him.
Q. Okay. Then, at 3:30, Mr. Tom Jennings again called the Homicide Office?
A. Well, Detective Schultz was advised that Mr. Jennings was on the telephone, and then Detective Schultz came back into the interview room and told Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
823 F.2d 856, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jeffery-lee-griffin-v-james-a-lynaugh-director-texas-department-of-ca5-1987.