People v. Walton

556 N.E.2d 892, 199 Ill. App. 3d 341, 145 Ill. Dec. 274, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 987
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 29, 1990
Docket4-89-0875
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 556 N.E.2d 892 (People v. Walton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Walton, 556 N.E.2d 892, 199 Ill. App. 3d 341, 145 Ill. Dec. 274, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 987 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

JUSTICE STEIGMANN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Anthony Walton, was found guilty of burglary (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 19—1(a)) after a jury trial and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. On appeal, defendant argues that (1) the trial court should have suppressed his confession, and (2) the prosecutor’s closing argument denied him a fair trial.

At the hearing on the motion to suppress defendant’s confession, police officer Jeff Bond testified that he gave defendant the Miranda warnings. Specifically, Bond stated the following:

“[Defense Counsel] Q. You recall how you gave him those Miranda warnings?
A. I just gave him [sic] to him conversationally.
Q. Did you read them off a card or anything of that nature?
A. No I did not.
Q. Did you advise him he had a right to remain silent?
A. Yes.
Q. Anything he might say could be used against him in court?
A. Yes I did.
Q. Informed he had a right to consult with a lawyer?
A. Yes I did.
Q. Had a right to have a lawyer with him during the interrogation?
A. I don’t know if I said that.
Q. And that if he is indigent or poor that he would be provided with a lawyer if he so desired?
A. Yes.”

The trial court denied the motion to suppress.

At trial, Bond testified that he “probably” advised defendant of his right to have an attorney present during the interrogation, but he could not be sure. Defendant testified that Bond never advised him of his Miranda rights.

At the hearing on defendant’s post-trial motion, the trial court explained its earlier denial of defendant’s motion to suppress and noted that there are four required admonitions under Miranda: (1) the right to remain silent; (2) the fact that one’s statements may be used against him; (3) the right to an attorney; and (4) the right to have an attorney appointed, if indigent. The trial court found that Bond properly informed defendant of these rights. The trial court further found that Bond’s use of the word “probably” referred only to whether Officer Bond used the precise language defense counsel asked him about.

Defendant contends that the State failed to prove that Bond advised defendant of his right to have an attorney present before and during interrogation and that this rendered defendant’s confession inadmissible.

When a defendant claims through a motion to suppress that his Miranda rights have been violated, a trial court’s decision denying that motion will be overturned only when the decision is contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence. People v. Kokoraleis (1987), 154 Ill. App. 3d 519, 526, 507 N.E.2d 146, 150.

Prior to custodial interrogation, the police must inform a defendant of the following:

“[H]e has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him, and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed.” Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 384 U.S. 436, 444, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 706-07, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 1612.

See also People v. Denham (1968), 41 Ill. 2d 1, 4, 241 N.E.2d 415, 417; People v. Bailey (1987), 164 Ill. App. 3d 555, 571, 517 N.E.2d 570, 580-81.

The most recent discussion by the United States Supreme Court regarding the Miranda warnings appears in Duckworth v. Eagan (1989), 492 U.S. 195, 106 L. Ed. 2d 166, 109 S. Ct. 2875. In Duckworth, the defendant received the standard Miranda warnings, but was also told by the police that, “We have no way of giving you a lawyer, but one will be appointed for you, if you wish, if and when you go to court.” (Duckworth, 492 U.S. at 198, 106 L. Ed. 2d at 174, 109 S. Ct. at 2877.) The defendant then confessed to a murder, but later filed a motion to suppress his confession, arguing that the warnings he received did not comply with Miranda because of the “if and when you go to court” language. (Duckworth, 492 U.S. at 200, 106 L. Ed. 2d at 175, 109 S. Ct. at 2877-78.) His motion was denied, and the issue was litigated first through the Indiana courts and then through the Federal courts on a petition for writ of habeas corpus, with the issue ultimately to be resolved by the United States Supreme Court. That Court stated the following:

“We have never insisted that Miranda warnings be given in the exact form described in that decision. *** In California v. Prysock, [citation], we stated that ‘the “rigidity” of Miranda [does not] exten[d] to the precise formulation of the warnings given a criminal defendant,’ and that ‘no talismanic incantation [is] required to satisfy its strictures.’ [Citation.]
*** The prophylactic Miranda warnings are ‘not themselves rights protected by the Constitution but [are] instead measures to insure that the right against compulsory self-incrimination [is] protected.’ [Citation.] Reviewing courts therefore need not examine Miranda warnings as if construing a will or defining the terms of an easement. The inquiry is simply whether the warnings reasonably ‘convefy] to [a suspect] his rights as required by Miranda.’ ” Duckworth, 492 U.S. at 202-03, 106 L. Ed. 2d at 176-77, 109 S. Ct. at 2879-80.

Judged by these standards, we find that the Miranda warnings given to defendant in this case, in their totality, were sufficient in that they “reasonably conveyed” to defendant his rights as required by Miranda. In so holding, we note that defendant was specifically informed that he “had a right to consult with a lawyer.” While the better practice would be for the police to make explicit that defendant’s right to consult with a lawyer may be both before and during any police interrogation, we hold that the language used in this case was sufficient to imply the right to counsel’s presence during questioning. We note that, as opposed to Duckworth, no restrictions were stated by the police in the present case as to how, when, or where defendant might exercise his right “to consult with a lawyer.”

We conclude that to hold otherwise would be to import a rigidity to the Miranda warnings and to require a “talismanic incantation,” both of which actions have been explicitly disapproved by the Court.

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

Related

People v. Rodriguez
2022 IL App (1st) 200315 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2022)
Ruiz v. Wills
N.D. Illinois, 2020
People of Michigan v. Laricca Seminta Mathews
Michigan Court of Appeals, 2018
People v. Macias
2015 IL App (1st) 132039 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2015)
People v. Martinez
867 N.E.2d 24 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2007)
People v. Rush
689 N.E.2d 669 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1998)
Holder v. Caselton
657 N.E.2d 680 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1995)
People v. Camden
578 N.E.2d 1211 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1991)
People v. Harris
561 N.E.2d 1361 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1990)
People v. Fickett
562 N.E.2d 238 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1990)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
556 N.E.2d 892, 199 Ill. App. 3d 341, 145 Ill. Dec. 274, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 987, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-walton-illappct-1990.