Montejo v. Louisiana

Montejo v. Louisiana
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 13, 2009 Decided May 26, 2009
Full case name	Jesse Jay Montejo, Petitioner v. Louisiana
Docket nos.	07-1529
Citations	556 U.S. ___ (2009); 129 S.Ct. 2079
Prior history	affirmed 974 So.2d 1238 (La. 2008), vacated and remanded U.S.
Holding
A defendant may validly waive his right to counsel for police interrogation, even if police initiate the interrogation after the defendant's assertion of his right to counsel at an arraignment or similar proceeding. Michigan v. Jackson is overruled.
Court membership
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Case opinions
Majority	Scalia, joined by Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito
Concurrence	Alito, joined by Kennedy
Dissent	Stevens, joined by Souter, Ginsburg; Breyer (except for n. 5)
Dissent	Breyer
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. VI

Montejo v. Louisiana, 556 U.S. ___ (2009), is a 5–4 decision by the United States Supreme Court that overruled the Court's decision in Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625 (1986). Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. Justice Alito filed a concurring opinion. Justice Stevens, who had written the Opinion of the Court in Jackson, filed a dissenting opinion in which Justice Souter and Justice Ginsburg joined. Justice Breyer joined that opinion, except for footnote 5. Justice Breyer filed a separate dissenting opinion.

Facts

At a preliminary hearing, Montejo was charged with first-degree murder. Montejo was also appointed court-ordered counsel, which he neither expressly requested nor denied. Later that day, while in prison, police read Montejo his Miranda rights, and he agreed to go along on a trip to locate the murder weapon. While in the police car, Montejo wrote an inculpatory letter of apology to the victim's widow. Only upon return did Montejo first finally meet his court-appointed attorney. At trial, the letter of apology was admitted over Montejo's objection. The jury convicted Montejo of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to death.

U.S. Supreme Court decision

The court expressly overturned Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625 (1986), asserting that requiring an initial “invocation” of the right to counsel in order to trigger the Jackson presumption, might work in States that require an indigent defendant formally to request counsel before an appointment is made, but not in more than half the States, which appoint counsel without request from the defendant.

Analysis

The Fifth Amendment's right to counsel attaches upon invocation (i.e. when an attorney is requested). The Sixth Amendment's right to counsel attaches when adversarial proceedings begin (i.e. at the arraignment). The presumption in Jackson attempted to analogize the Fifth Amendment's right against self-incrimination through Edwards v. Arizona to the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel. Essentially not allowing police interrogation after the right attached. Under Montejo, in the case where the Defendant has not asserted his Fifth Amendment's right to counsel but rather relies on his Sixth Amendment's right to counsel, police may reinitiate interrogation after his Miranda rights have been read. However, if a Defendant has asserted his Fifth Amendment's right to counsel and adversarial proceedings have begun, police may not reinitiate questioning without counsel present and waiver under Edwards, or unless the Defendant initiates the conversation and police get waiver.

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 556
• List of United States Supreme Court cases

External links

• Text of the decision
• Transcript of oral argument
• The Right to Counsel, Weakened (NYT Editorial)