Williams v. Nix, 82-1140

• Citation: 700 F.2d 1164
• Decision Date: 31 May 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-1140,82-1140
• Parties: Robert Anthony WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Crispus NIX, Warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary, Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

Page 1164

700 F.2d 1164

Robert Anthony WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Crispus NIX, Warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary, Appellee.

No. 82-1140.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 8, 1982.

Decided Jan. 10, 1983.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied March 15, 1983.

Certiorari Granted May 31, 1983. See 103 S.Ct. 2427.

Robert Bartels, Tempe, Ariz., for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen. of Iowa, Thomas D. McGrane, Asst. Atty. Gen., Des Moines, Iowa, for appellee.

Before HEANEY, Circuit Judge, HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge, and ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

In Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 51 L.Ed.2d 424 (1977), the Supreme Court set aside the murder conviction of appellant Robert Anthony Williams because statements leading the police to the body of the victim had been obtained from Williams in violation of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment right to counsel. Williams was tried again, and evidence of the discovery of the body and its condition was again admitted against him, this time on the theory, suggested in a footnote in the Supreme Court's opinion, that "the body would have been discovered in any event," 430 U.S. at 407 n. 12, 97 S.Ct. at 1244 n. 12, even in the absence of the statements unconstitutionally obtained from the defendant. After the Supreme Court of Iowa affirmed the second conviction, State v. Williams, 285 N.W.2d 248 (Iowa 1979), defendant again sought federal habeas relief, which the District Court denied, Williams v. Nix, 528 F.Supp. 664 (S.D.Iowa 1981). Both the Supreme Court of Iowa and the District Court adopted the "inevitable discovery" or "hypothetical independent source" exception to the exclusionary rule and upheld the second conviction on that basis, finding that the State had proved that the body would have been discovered in any event and that the police had not acted in bad faith in obtaining the excluded statements from defendant. We hold that the record cannot support a finding that the State proved the police did not act in bad faith. We therefore reverse, 528 F.Supp. 664, and remand with instructions that the writ issue unless the State commences proceedings to try defendant again within 60 days of this Court's mandate. ¹

I.

On Christmas Eve 1968 the Powers family went to see a wrestling match at the YMCA in Des Moines. Pamela Powers, their ten-year-old daughter, excused herself to go to the bathroom. She did not come back. A little while later, Robert Anthony Williams, a resident of the YMCA, was seen leaving the building with a bundle wrapped in a blanket. Williams, a black man known as "Reverend," had escaped from a mental hospital in Missouri, where he had been a patient for three years, without the knowledge, presumably, of the Des Moines YMCA. Two days later, Pamela Powers's body was found in a ditch east of Des Moines, as a result of statements made by Williams to the police under circumstances to be fully described later. Williams was tried and convicted of deliberate, premeditated murder, and his conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Iowa, State v. Williams, 182 N.W.2d 396 (Iowa 1970). On habeas, however, the District Court, Williams v. Brewer, 375 F.Supp. 170 (S.D.Iowa 1974), set this first conviction aside, and this Court, 509 F.2d 227 (8th Cir.1974), and the Supreme Court, Brewer v. Williams, supra, affirmed.

The Supreme Court's reasons for invalidating the first conviction are of course the law of this case and are an important part of the background necessary for an understanding of the issues that now arise on this habeas challenge to Williams's second conviction. The defendant, after leaving the YMCA in Des Moines on December 24, turned up in Rock Island, Illinois, two days later. He telephoned Henry McKnight, a lawyer in Des Moines, and McKnight advised him to turn himself in to the police in Davenport, Iowa. Williams did surrender in Davenport, and McKnight went to the police station in Des Moines to speak with the authorities there. "As a result of these conversations, it was agreed between McKnight and the Des Moines police officials that Detective Leaming [of the Des Moines police] and a fellow officer would drive to Davenport to pick up Williams, that they would bring him directly back to Des Moines, and that they would not question him during the trip." Brewer v. Williams, supra, 430 U.S. at 391, 97 S.Ct. at 1235. The Supreme Court then described what happened next, id. at 392-93, 97 S.Ct. at 1236-1237:

The two detectives, with Williams in their charge, then set out on the 160-mile drive. At no time during the trip did Williams express a willingness to be interrogated in the absence of an attorney. Instead, he stated several times that "[w]hen I get to Des Moines and see Mr. McKnight, I am going to tell you the whole story." Detective Leaming knew that Williams was a former mental patient, and knew also that he was deeply religious.

The detective and his prisoner soon embarked on a wide-ranging conversation covering a variety of topics, including the subject of religion. Then, not long after leaving Davenport and reaching the interstate highway, Detective Leaming delivered what has been referred to in the briefs and oral arguments as the "Christian burial speech." Addressing Williams as "Reverend," the detective said "I want to give you something to think about while we're traveling down the road.... Number one, I want you to observe the weather conditions, it's raining, it's sleeting, it's freezing, driving is very treacherous, visibility is poor, it's going to be dark early this evening. They are predicting several inches of snow for tonight, and I feel that you yourself are the only person that knows where this little girl's body is, that you yourself have only been there once, and if you get a snow on top of it you yourself may be unable to find it. And, since we will be going right past the area on the way into Des Moines, I feel that we could stop and locate the body, that the parents of this little girl should be entitled to a Christian burial for the little girl who was snatched away from them on Christmas [E]ve and murdered. And I feel we should stop and locate it on the way in rather than waiting until morning and trying to come back out after a snow storm and possibly not being able to find it at all."

Williams asked Detective Leaming why he thought their route to Des Moines would be taking them past the girl's body, and Leaming responded that he knew the body was in the area of Mitchellville--a town they would be passing on the way to Des Moines. ¹ Leaming then stated: "I do not want you to answer me. I don't want to discuss it any further. Just think about it as we're riding down the road."

As the car approached Grinnell, a town approximately 100 miles west of Davenport, Williams asked whether the police had found the victim's shoes. When Detective Leaming replied that he was unsure, Williams directed the officers to a service station where he said he had left the shoes; a search for them proved unsuccessful. As they continued towards Des Moines, Williams asked whether the police had found the blanket, and directed the officers to a rest area where he said he had disposed of the blanket. Nothing was found. The car continued towards Des Moines, and as it approached Mitchellville, Williams said that he would show the officers where the body was. He then directed the police to the body of Pamela Powers.

The Court then held that the use of Williams's statements against him violated his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment right to the assistance of counsel. "Detective Leaming," it said, "deliberately and designedly set out to elicit information from Williams just as surely as--and perhaps more effectively than--if he had formally interrogated him.... [H]e purposely sought during Williams' isolation from his lawyers to obtain as much incriminating information as possible." Id. 430 U.S. at 399, 97 S.Ct. at 1240. The Court further held that Williams had not waived his right to counsel and that "so clear a violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments as here occurred cannot be condoned." Id. at 406, 97 S.Ct. at 1243. The judgment of this Court granting habeas corpus was affirmed.

It was in this setting that Williams was tried for the second time. This time the State did not offer his own statements in evidence against him, nor did it seek to show that the police had been led to the victim's body by the defendant. The prosecution did, however, introduce evidence of the discovery of the body and various articles of the victim's clothing, including photographs and results of scientific tests. An evidentiary hearing on defendant's motion to suppress this evidence was held by the District Court of Polk County, Iowa. ² The evidence was incontestably discovered as a direct result of defendant's unconstitutionally obtained statements, so it was, absent some exception, clearly excludable as "fruit of the poisonous tree." The State argued that the evidence would have been discovered in any event, and cited a footnote in the Supreme Court's opinion:

The District Court stated that its decision "does not touch upon the issue of what evidence, if any, beyond the incriminating statements themselves must be excluded as 'fruit of the poisonous tree.' " 375 F.Supp. 170, 185. We, too, have no occasion to address this issue, and in the present posture of the case there is no basis for the view of our dissenting Brethren, post, [430 U.S.] at 430 (White, J.); post, at 441 (Blackmun, J.), that any attempt to retry the respondent would probably be futile. While neither Williams' incriminating statements themselves nor any testimony describing his having led the police to the victim's body can constitutionally be admitted into evidence, evidence of where the body was found and of its condition might well be admissible on the theory that the body would have been discovered in any...