Does it Violate Miranda to Have an Informant Question Suspect After He’s Invoked the Right to Counsel?

• Use of a jailhouse informant to question an in-custody suspect 
• Legal effect of a prior invocation of one’s right to the assistance of counsel 
• Miranda and an invocation to one’s right to the assistance of counsel 
• Habeas corpus proceedings 

It is lawful to use a jailhouse police informant to question an in-custody suspect despite the suspect’s earlier invocation of his right to the assistance of counsel, at least in a habeas corpus review, as there is no contrary ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Marrisha Robinson and her infant daughter were sitting in their Mitsubishi in a Los Angeles strip mall parking lot on February 12, 2014, waiting while her fiancé, Adrian Dawson, was shopping in one of the stores. The defendant, Christopher Grimes, double-parked his Mercedes behind the Mitsubishi, apparently leaving it out of gear and without setting the emergency brake. The Mercedes rolled into the Mitsubishi’s rear bumper and did some minor damage. Grimes told Robinson not to worry; that he would “take care of it.” As he was talking to Robinson, Dawson came running out of the store, “sucker punch(ing)” Grimes in the face two or three times while yelling “My baby’s in the car!” Telling Dawson that he did not want to fight, Grimes left the scene in his Mercedes. Less than two minutes later, as Robinson and Dawson were driving away, they noticed Grimes’ Mercedes behind them. Thinking that Grimes was seeking to recontact them so they could exchange insurance information, Dawson slowed down. The Mercedes, however, suddenly pulled alongside them and the driver fired four gunshots into the Mitsubishi. Dawson, in the Mitsubishi’s front passenger seat, was struck by one or more of the shots and died shortly thereafter. Grimes, as the obvious suspect, was arrested two days later. Robinson identified Grimes in a photographic lineup as the man with whom they had had the parking lot confrontation, but she could not attest to whether he was the one who later shot Dawson.  

Evidence collected during the execution of a search warrant on Grimes’ Mercedes and home included 9mm ammunition and bullet casings. Dawson ....