State v. Huntley

418 So. 2d 538
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 21, 1982
Docket81-KA-3139
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 418 So. 2d 538 (State v. Huntley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Huntley, 418 So. 2d 538 (La. 1982).

Opinion

418 So.2d 538 (1982)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Lawrence Wayne HUNTLEY.

No. 81-KA-3139.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

June 21, 1982.
Rehearing Denied September 3, 1982.

*539 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., J. Nathan Stansbury, Dist. Atty., Jack D. Miller, Michael Garsen, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.

Jack Rogers, John M. Crochet, Rogers, St. Romain & Crochet, Lake Charles, for defendant-appellant.

FRED C. SEXTON, Jr., Justice Ad Hoc [*].

On February 28, 1980, defendant, Lawrence Wayne Huntley, was indicted by the Grand Jury of Vermillion Parish for first degree murder. The defendant was arrested the same day pursuant to an arrest warrant arising from the Grand Jury indictment. The defendant was charged with the April 9, 1976, stabbing death of Linda Hebert, which occurred during the armed robbery of a liquor store owned by the deceased and her husband. At the time of the robbery, the deceased was alone in the store. The day after his arrest, February 29, 1980, the defense confessed to the murder of Mrs. Hebert, giving both oral and written admissions of guilt.

On January 6, 1981, the state amended the indictment to charge the defendant with second degree murder. After a trial by a jury of twelve, the defendant was found guilty of second degree murder as charged. On February 17, 1981, the defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment, at hard labor, without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence for a period of forty (40) years. The defendant appeals his conviction and argues two assignments of error.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

Defendant's first assignment of error charges that the trial court erred in denying defendant's motion to suppress post-indictment confessions given to police officers shortly after his arrest and before he had counsel. The defendant contends that confessions given by him were elicited unconstitutionally by state agents in violation of his right to the presence of counsel at all critical stages of a criminal proceeding as secured by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

He asserts that Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246, and its progeny, Brewer v. Williams, 403 U.S. 387, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 51 L.Ed.2d 424, as well as the recent case of United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264, 100 S.Ct. 2183, 65 L.Ed.2d 115 (1980), preclude interrogation after indictment in the absence of counsel, unless the state proves convincingly that the defendant affirmatively waived counsel's presence.

*540 In Massiah, a 1964 decision, the United States Supreme Court held improper the placing of a transmitter on a cooperating co-defendant, whose cooperation was unknown to the defendant. The purpose of the transmitter, of course, was to enable government agents to overhear statements elicited from the defendant by the cooperating co-defendant. This action was post-indictment and the defendant was on bond.

Henry is similar to Massiah. After indictment the government agents contacted an informant who had previously worked with them and who was also in the same jail. The defendant subsequently made incriminating statements to this paid informant which were introduced at his trial. The differences between Henry and Massiah are that in Henry the informant and the defendant did not have a long standing relationship and further, in Henry, the informant was specifically instructed not to initiate any conversations about the alleged conduct of the defendant in question.

Brewer is the well known "christian burial speech" case rendered by a sharply divided court.[1] The defendant had consulted with an attorney in Des Moines, Iowa, prior to turning himself in to police in Davenport, Iowa. His attorney in Des Moines had told him not to talk to police officers. After his arrest and appearance before a judge in Davenport an attorney was appointed in those proceeding who likewise advised him not to talk with police officers. Additionally the Des Moines attorney specifically instructed the officers who were to travel to Davenport to return the defendant not to interrogate him. Likewise the Davenport attorney told the Des Moines officers when they arrived there that they were not to interrogate the defendant during the course of the return trip. He also advised the defendant not to make any statements to the officers.

Apparently the weather was quite cold and snow was expected. During the trip, after warning the defendant not to discuss the matter with him, one of the detectives told the defendant that he realized they would be going past the site where the defendant had left the child who was the victim of this offense and asked the defendant to consider the fact if they did not stop and locate the body, that if they attempted to do so after going first to Des Moines, that the snow might preclude even the defendant from locating the body. He told the defendant not to tell him anything then but to "think about it." Brewer subsequently told the officer without further prompting where to locate the body. This statement and the resulting evidence were used against him at the trial.

There was no real dispute as to the facts between either the "majority," those concurring or the dissents. The divergence of opinion was on the interpretation to be given to those facts. The majority viewed the action of the detective as not being an interrogation, while the dissents saw the defendant's statement as a voluntary waiver. The concurrence of Justice Stevens caught the spirit of the opinion as he pointed out that an experienced trial attorney had trusted the officers not to interrogate the defendant. Thus the court felt that this trust had been dishonored by surreptitious police conduct.

On examination it is apparent the main concern of the court in all these cases was over what was viewed as surreptitious indirect action by law enforcement agents involving trick or artifice. That is, the police agency "deliberately elicited" the incriminating statements from the defendants after counsel had been brought into the case.

Note that in Massiah and Henry the government action complained of is substantially after indictment and the entry of counsel into the case. Massiah makes it clear that it was the surreptitious police conduct in obtaining evidence that concerned the court.

"... here the damaging testimony was elicited from the defendant without his *541 knowledge while he was free on bail." (Emphasis added).

The majority noted with approval language from a dissent in the Court of Appeal:

"If such a rule is to have any efficacy it must apply to indirect and surreptitious interrogation as well as those conducted at the jail house." (Emphasis added).

The court narrowed the holding by stating:

"All that we hold is that the defendant's own incriminating statements, obtained by federal agents under the circumstances here disclosed, could not constitutionally be used by the prosecution as evidence against him at his trial." Massiah, supra, 84 S.Ct. at p. 1203. (First emphasis added).

By the time Massiah had matured into Henry

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

Related

State v. Hattaway
621 So. 2d 796 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1993)
State v. Sampay
532 So. 2d 384 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1988)
State v. Matthieu
527 So. 2d 530 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1988)
State v. Lively
457 So. 2d 1236 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
418 So. 2d 538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-huntley-la-1982.