Montejo v. Louisiana; Suspects in Criminal Investigations Must Invoke Right to Counsel and Remain Silent, Even if Represented by Counsel
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson often warned his judicial colleagues that the court was “forever adding new stories to the temples of constitutional law, and the temples have a way of collapsing when one story too many is added.”
In May, 2009, The Supreme Court removed a story from the constitutional rules protecting criminal suspects against police-coerced confessions. A criminal defense attorney’s most dreaded hurdle is incriminating statements obtained from his/her client outside the presence of legal counsel. The Supreme Court’s latest excursion into this constitutional arena has resulted in a definitive ruling that will make it easier for prosecutors and law enforcement authorities to secure such statements from criminal defendants, even those who are known to be represented by counsel.
St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parishes are located in the southeastern corner of the state of Louisiana. It is an ultra-conservative part of the state—a region that sent former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to the Louisiana Legislature and voted overwhelmingly for the former Klan leader in his narrowly failed bid to become a U.S. Senator in the 1990s. The death penalty is a natural byproduct of this region’s conservative political mindset.
Lewis Ferrari owned nine dry-cleaning businesses in St. Tammany Parish and one in Tangipahoa Parish. So it was inevitable that his brutal murder in 2002 would demand the death penalty. (more…)
Subscribe
