Criminal Procedure
Massiah v. United States
377 U.S. 201, 84 S. Ct. 1199 (1964)
FACTS:
Defendant Massiah, after being indicted with other persons for violating the federal
narcotics laws, retained a lawyer, pleaded not guilty, and was released on bail. While free on
bail, defendant held a conversation in the absence of his counsel with one of his codefendants while sitting in the latter's automobile. Defendant was unaware that the codefendant was cooperating with government agents, and allowed the installation of a radio
transmitter under the front seat of the automobile, by means of which a federal agent listened
to the conversation. At defendant's trial in the United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York, the federal agent testified to incriminating statements made by
defendant during the conversation over defendant's objection. The trial resulted in defendant's
conviction. On defendant's appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
affirmed the conviction.
ISSUE:
Was defendant's conviction proper?
RULING:
NO. Under the Sixth Amendment's guaranty of defendant's right to assistance of
counsel, defendant's incriminating statements, elicited by government agents after he had
been indicted and in the absence of his counsel, were not admissible at his trial. The Court
further held that defendant was denied the basic protections of U.S. Const. amend. VI when
there was used against him at his trial evidence of his own incriminating words, which federal
agents had deliberately and secretly elicited from him after he had been indicted and in the
absence of his counsel. The Court found that any secret interrogation of defendant, from and
after the finding of the indictment, without the protection afforded by the presence of counsel,
contravened the basic dictates of fairness in the conduct of the criminal cause and the
fundamental rights of the accused. The Court noted that defendant was as much entitled to aid
of counsel during the critical period after arraignment and until the beginning of trial as at the
trial itself. Here, defendant was seriously imposed upon since he did not even know that he
was under interrogation by a government agent.