Olive v. State

10 S.W.3d 443, 340 Ark. 343, 2000 Ark. LEXIS 62
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 10, 2000
DocketCR 99-926
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 10 S.W.3d 443 (Olive v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Olive v. State, 10 S.W.3d 443, 340 Ark. 343, 2000 Ark. LEXIS 62 (Ark. 2000).

Opinion

Donald L. Corbin, Justice.

Appellant Patrick Olive appeals the judgment of the Pulaski County Circuit Court convicting him of first-degree murder and terroristic act and sentencing him to twenty years’ and ten years’ imprisonment, respectively. The evidence showed that on November 16, 1997, Mrs. Bernice Nichols was in her bed when numerous gunfire shots struck her residence. She died as a result of gunshot wounds to her head and neck. Appellant’s sole point for reversal is that the trial court erred in denying suppression of his custodial statement under Article 2, sections 8 and 10, of the Arkansas Constitution. The issue is whether, under the Arkansas Constitution, a defendant’s invocation of the right to counsel after prosecution has commenced on one charge is also an invocation of the right to counsel during custodial interrogation for a separate, uncharged offense. Because this issue is one of first impression, our jurisdiction is pursuant to Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 1-2 (b)(1). We find no error and affirm.

The record reflects that Appellant was initially arrested for an aggravated robbery that occurred on June 28, 1997. Defense counsel was appointed in that case on January 14, 1998. Approximately two months later, on March 13, 1998, while he was still in custody on the robbery charge, Appellant was approached by officers about the murder of Mrs. Nichols. Prior to asking any questions, the officers read Appellant his Miranda rights. Appellant signed a form indicating that he understood his rights and agreed to waive them. During the interview, Appellant confessed to participating in the murder. He was then arrested for that charge.

Appellant moved to suppress the confession on the ground that it had been obtained outside the presence of counsel. He contended that because he had invoked his right to counsel on the robbery charge, and because he had continuously remained in custody, the statement regarding the murder was taken in violation of his rights to counsel under Article 2, sections 8 and 10. The trial court disagreed and denied suppression of the statement.

We begin our analysis of this issue with an examination of the Supreme Court’s decision in McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. 171 (1991). There, the Court held that the defendant’s invocation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel during a judicial proceeding for a charged offense did not constitute an invocation of his Fifth Amendment right to counsel on unrelated and uncharged offenses. The Court concluded that the right to counsel guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment, as interpreted in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), and Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477 (1981), was not “offense specific,” but that the right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment was. Id. at 177. The Court explained that once a suspect has invoked the Fifth Amendment right to counsel for interrogation regarding one offense, he may not be reapproached by the police regarding any offense unless counsel is present. On the other hand, the Court concluded:

The Sixth Amendment right, however, is offense specific. It cannot be invoked once for all future prosecutions, for it does not attach until a prosecution is commenced, that is, “ ‘at or after the initiation of adversary judicial criminal proceedings — whether by way of formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information, or arraignment.’ ” United States v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. 180, 188 (1984) (quoting Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 689 (1972) (plurality opinion)).

Id. at 175. The Court concluded that it would not be sound policy to view the assertion of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel as an assertion of the Fifth Amendment right, as provided in Miranda. The Court explained that the two rights serve different purposes:

The purpose of the Sixth Amendment counsel guarantee — and hence the purpose of invoking it — is to “protec[t] the unaided layman at critical confrontations” with his “expert adversary,” the government, after “the adverse positions of government and defendant have solidified” with respect to a particular alleged crime. Gouveia, 467 U.S., at 189. The purpose of the Miranda-Edwards guarantee, on the other hand — and hence the purpose of invoking it — is to protect a quite different interest: the suspect’s “desire to deal with the police only through counsel,” Edwards, supra, at 484. This is in one respect narrower than the interest protected by the Sixth Amendment guarantee (because it relates only to custodial interrogation), and in another respect broader (because it relates to interrogation regarding any suspected crime and attaches whether or not the “adversarial relationship” produced by a pending prosecution has yet arisen). To invoke the Sixth Amendment interest is, as a matter offact, not to invoke the Miranda-Edwards interest.

Id. at 177-78.

Appellant acknowledges that the holding in McNeil is on point with the particular facts of this case. He urges, however, that the Court’s decision should be limited to those rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution in the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. In other words, Appellant asserts that the rights to counsel under the Arkansas Constitution should be interpreted more liberally than those in the federal constitution. We disagree.

In the first place, Appellant has failed to cite to any authority in support of his argument, and we are not aware of any such authority. To the contrary, this court has consistently viewed the right to counsel provided by Article 2, section 10, as guaranteeing the same right conferred by the Sixth Amendment. See e.g., Beyer v. State, 331 Ark. 197, 962 S.W.2d 751 (1998); Jones v. State, 314 Ark. 383, 862 S.W.2d 273 (1993), cert. denied, 512 U.S. 1237 (1994); Clements v. State, 306 Ark. 596, 817 S.W.2d 194 (1991). Likewise, this court has observed that Article 2, section 8, is “our state constitutional equivalent” to the Fifth Amendment. Clark v. State, 256 Ark. 658, 659, 509 S.W.2d 812, 814 (1974). Additionally, this court has frequently relied on the Supreme Court’s decisions in determining the scope of the right to counsel during custodial interrogation. See e.g., Riggs v. State, 339 Ark. 111, 3 S.W.3d 305 (1999); Esmeyer v. State, 325 Ark. 491, 930 S.W.2d 302 (1996); Bowen v. State, 322 Ark. 483, 911 S.W.2d 555 (1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1226 (1996). Accordingly, we see no reason to deviate from that practice here.

In the second place, this court has twice embraced the Supreme Court’s holding in McNeil, 501 U.S. 171, as a correct statement of the law. In Brenk v. State, 311 Ark.

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Bluebook (online)
10 S.W.3d 443, 340 Ark. 343, 2000 Ark. LEXIS 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/olive-v-state-ark-2000.