JERRY HALIBURTON, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, RESPONDENT
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The Florida Supreme Court reversed Jerry Haliburton's murder and burglary convictions, holding that police violated Florida's due process clause by failing to inform him that a retained attorney was present at the station and requesting access, even after a judge ordered the attorney be allowed to see him. The court rejected the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in Moran v. Burbine and adopted a stricter state constitutional standard protecting the attorney-client relationship.
The court held that police conduct violating due process by concealing from a suspect the material fact that a retained attorney is present and requesting access requires suppression of any statements obtained. Such conduct violates article I, section 9 of the Florida Constitution even though the U.S. Supreme Court in Moran v. Burbine held that federal constitutional standards do not require suppression under these circumstances.
[1] A defendant's waiver of Fifth Amendment rights is not rendered unknowing or unintelligent by the police's failure to inform the defendant that an attorney is attempting t…
[2] The Sixth Amendment right to counsel does not attach until the government has committed itself to prosecution.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“due process requires fairness, integrity, and honor in the operation of the criminal justice system, and in its treatment of the citizen's cardinal constitutional protections.... [P]olice interference in the attorney-client relationship is the type of governmental misconduct on a matter of central importance to the administration of justice that the Due Process Clause prohibits.... Just as the government cannot conceal from a suspect material and exculpatory evidence, so too the government cannot conceal from a suspect the material fact of his attorney's communication.”
Establishes the court's rationale for adopting a stricter state constitutional standard protecting attorney-client communication from police interference
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceHaliburton was arrested and subject to police interrogation after Miranda warnings. An attorney retained on his behalf (by his family) called the poli…
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PER CURIAM.
We reversed Jerry Haliburton’s first-degree murder and burglary convictions in Haliburton v. State, 476 So. 2d 192 (Fla.1985), finding that the trial court reversibly erred in refusing to suppress Haliburton’s statement made while an attorney, retained on his behalf, was at the police station requesting to speak with him. We found that the police’s failure to notify appellant that an attorney was present and requesting to see him deprived the appellant of information essential to a knowing and intelligent waiver of his right to counsel under Miranda v. Arizona, 884 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed. 2d 977 (1964).
The United States Supreme Court has rejected this interpretation of Miranda and Escobedo in Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 89 L.Ed.2d 410 (1986).
The Court has vacated Haliburton and remanded the cause for reconsideration in light of Burbine. Florida v. Haliburton, 475 U.S. 1078, 106 S.Ct. 1452, 89 L.Ed.2d 711 (1986).
We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.
The facts of Burbine are similar to those of the instant case. An attorney, contacted by Burbine’s sister on his behalf but without his knowledge, called the police station and was told that Burbine would not be questioned until the following day. Less than an hour later, after Miranda warnings, the police began a series of interrogatories that resulted in three signed statements admitting to the murder. The Court held that neither the police conduct, nor Burbine’s ignorance of the attorney’s efforts to reach him, undermined the waiver of his fifth amendment rights so as to require exclusion of the statements. The Court considered the police conduct irrelevant since it found that knowledge of the attorney’s telephone call was not essential to a knowing and intelligent waiver of Bur-bine’s Miranda rights. In addition, the Court found that Burbine’s sixth amendment right to counsel had not attached because the government had not committed . itself to prosecution at the time the statements were made. The Court found no fourteenth amendment violation, but noted that on facts more egregious than those in Burbine, police conduct might rise to the level of a due process violation. The Court plainly stated, however, that its decision does not disable “the States from adopting different requirements for the conduct of its employees and officials as a matter of state law.” 106 S.Ct. at 1145.
Appellant urges us to reaffirm our initial reversal of his conviction, arguing, inter alia, that the police conduct in the instant case is distinguishable from, and more egregious than, the police conduct in Bur-bine. He claims that the conduct denied him due process of law under article I, section 9, of the Florida Constitution.
The state contends that the conduct at issue is in fact less egregious than in Burbine and does not rise to the level of a due process violation since the police did not misinform or deceive Haliburton’s attorney as to his client’s status.
We disagree. As Justice Stevens stated in his Burbine dissent, any “distinction between deception accomplished by means of an omission of a critically important fact and deception by means of a misleading statement, is simply untenable.” Id. at 1158 (Stevens, J., dissenting). Further, “there can be no constitutional distinction ... between a deceptive misstatement and the concealment by the police of the critical fact that an attorney retained by the accused or his family has offered assistance, either by telephone or in person.” Id. (footnote omitted).
Further, the attorney in the instant case not only telephoned the police station as to the status of his client, but subsequently arrived at the station and requested access. As the Oregon Supreme Court has observed, “[t]o pass up an abstract offer to call some unknown lawyer is very different from refusing to talk with an identified attorney actually available to provide at least initial assistance and advice, whatever might be arranged in the long run.” State v. Haynes, 288 Or. 59, 72, 602 P. 2d 272, 278 (1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 945,100 S.Ct. 2175, 64 L.Ed.2d 802 (1980).
Haliburton was not told of the attorney’s presence or request. The police refused access even in the face of a circuit court judge’s telephonic order that the attorney be allowed to see the suspect.* Only after a second telephone call from the judge was the attorney allowed to see his client.
We find that this conduct violates the due process provision of article I, section 9 of the Florida Constitution. Again we must agree with Justice Stevens that due process requires fairness, integrity, and honor in the operation of the criminal justice system, and in its treatment of the citizen’s cardinal constitutional protections.... [Pjolice interference in the attorney-client relationship is the type of governmental misconduct on a matter of central importance to the administration of justice that the Due Process Clause prohibits.... Just as the government cannot conceal from a suspect material and exculpatory evidence, so too the government cannot conceal from a suspect the material fact of his attorney’s communication.
106 S.Ct. at 1165-66 (Stevens, J., dissenting).
Since Haliburton was vacated in full, we again address appellant’s argument that, not only should his conviction be reversed, but that he should be discharged because his waiver of the right to a speedy trial, following the grand jury’s refusal to indict for murder, applied only to the burglary charge. We disagree. “A defense continuance constitutes a specific waiver of the speedy trial rule (or, more properly, an estoppel precluding reliance on the rule) as to all charges which emanate from a single criminal episode.” Gallego v. Purdy, 415 So. 2d 166, 167 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982) (citing State v. DeSimone, 386 So. 2d 283 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980); State v. Corlew, 382 So. 2d 787 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980)).
In accordance with the views expressed herein, we hold as a matter of state law that the failure to suppress appellant’s statements obtained in violation of due process of law was reversible error. We reverse and remand for a new trial thereby rendering the remaining issues moot.
It is so ordered.
EHRLICH, SHAW, GRIMES and KOGAN, JJ., concur. OVERTON, J., dissents with an opinion, in which McDONALD, C.J., concurs.
*
We discussed the duty of law enforcement officers to obey telephonic court orders in Jamason v. State, 455 So. 2d 380 (Fla.1984).
OVERTON, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. Haliburton’s statements were not involuntary and are clearly admissible. The United States Supreme Court, in its recent decision in Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 89 L.Ed.2d 410 (1986), under almost identical circumstances, held that neither the police conduct nor the defendant’s lack of awareness regarding the attorney’s efforts to reach him would have the effect of invalidating the waivers entered into by the defendant. The United States Supreme Court held that there was neither a fifth amendment nor a sixth amendment violation under these circumstances. In the instant case, Halibur-ton does not contend that the waivers obtained were involuntary. In fact, the record in this case reflects clearly the reason why the appellant was making the statement. He had been confronted with evidence that he had burglarized the victim’s home during the approximate period of the murder and he was trying to convince the police that, although he had burglarized the home, he had hot murdered the victim. In my view, since the statement was voluntarily made, it should be admissible into evidence. I do not find any justifiable basis for holding that the due process clause of the Florida Constitution should be interpreted more broadly than the due process clause of the United States Constitution. Further, in this case, unlike Moran, the police did not deceive the attorney who was seeking access to Haliburton. The attorney was informed of appellant’s status, but, on the advice of police counsel, was advised that he could not have access. I do not condone the conduct of the police in denying access to an attorney employed by the appellant’s sister to represent Hali-burton. However, since the statement was voluntary, it should be admitted.
McDONALD, C.J., concurs.
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Dep't OF LAW Enf't v. Real Prop., 588 So. 2d 957 (Fla. 1991)…(Fla.1991); State v. Harris, 356 So. 2d 315, 317 (1978); vagueness, see, e.g., Perkins v. State, 576 So. 2d 1310 (Fla.1991); Bussey; State v. Barquet, 262 So. 2d 431, 436 (Fla.1972); the conduct of law enforcement officials, see Haliburton v. State, 514 So. 2d 1088 (Fla.1987); State v. Glosson, 462 So. 2d 1082 (Fla.1985); the right to a fair trial, see Kritzman v. State, 520 So. 2d 568 (Fla.1988); and the availability or harshness of remedies, see In re Forfeiture of 1976 Kenworth Tractor Trailer Truck, 576 So…
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Johnson v. State, 660 So. 2d 648 (Fla. 1995)…nied him access to a public defender’s representative present at the jail shortly before he gave yet another confession elaborating details of the murder and identifying the location of a murder weapon. He believes this violated Haliburton v. State, 514 So. 2d 1088 (Fla.1987). We disagree. Haliburton stands for the proposition that, once a suspect has retained counsel, police may not refuse to tell the suspect that counsel is present in the jail for consultation. Here, Johnson had no counsel, requested no coun…
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State v. Glenn, 558 So. 2d 4 (Fla. 1990)…(Fla.1986), which held that finding a defendant to be an habitual offender is not a legally sufficient reason for departure from sentencing guidelines); Jones v. State, 528 So. 2d 1171 (Fla.1988) (declined to retroactively apply Haliburton v. State, 514 So. 2d 1088 (Fla.1987), which held that police failure to comply with attorney’s telephonic request not to question a defendant further until that attorney could arrive was a violation of due process); State v. Safford, 484 So. 2d 1244 (Fla.1986) (declined to r…
Previewing 3 of 29 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited (11 total)
- Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (U.S. 1966)
- Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 (U.S. 1964)
- Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412 (U.S. 1986)
- Saunders-El v. United States, 446 U.S. 945 (U.S. 1980)
- Haliburton v. State, 476 So. 2d 192 (Fla. 1985)
- Jamason v. State, 455 So. 2d 380 (Fla. 1984)
- Gallego v. The Honorable H. Mark Purdy as Judge of the Cir. Court of the 17th Jud. Cir. in & for Broward Cnty., 415 So. 2d 166 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982)
- State v. Corlew, 382 So. 2d 787 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980)
- State v. DeSIMONE, 386 So. 2d 283 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980)
- Covenant Cmty. Church v. Lowe, 475 U.S. 1078 (U.S. 1986)