Williams v. Nix

• Decision Date: 18 December 1981
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 80-450-D.
• Citation: 528 F. Supp. 664
• Parties: Robert Anthony WILLIAMS, Petitioner, v. Crispus NIX, Warden, Iowa State Penitentiary, and Attorney General of the State of Iowa, Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Iowa

528 F. Supp. 664

Robert Anthony WILLIAMS, Petitioner, v. Crispus NIX, Warden, Iowa State Penitentiary, and Attorney General of the State of Iowa, Respondents.

Civ. No. 80-450-D.

United States District Court, S. D. Iowa, C. D.

December 18, 1981.

Robert Bartels, Prisoner Assistance Clinic, Iowa City, Iowa, for petitioner.

Thomas D. McGrane, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa, for respondents.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER DENYING WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

VIETOR, District Judge.

This is a habeas corpus proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 brought by an inmate of the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa, where respondent Crispus Nix is the warden.¹ Petitioner is serving a sentence of life in prison imposed on August 19, 1977, by Iowa District Court Judge J. P. Denato after petitioner was found guilty by a jury of first degree murder. The conviction was affirmed by the Iowa Supreme Court. State v. Williams, 285 N.W.2d 248 (Iowa 1979).

The court heard evidence and oral arguments, and the case is now fully submitted for decision upon the record, including transcripts of proceedings in state court, affidavits submitted by the parties, evidence received by this court, and the briefs and oral arguments of counsel.

FIRST CONVICTION VACATED

The conviction under review is the petitioner's second conviction for the same offense. His first conviction was, after first being affirmed by the Iowa Supreme Court, State v. Williams, 182 N.W.2d 396 (Iowa 1971), vacated in a federal habeas corpus proceeding. Williams v. Brewer, 375 F.Supp. 170 (S.D.Iowa), aff'd, 509 F.2d 227 (8th Cir. 1974), aff'd sub nom., Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 51 L.Ed.2d 423 (1977). The United States Supreme Court held that petitioner's constitutional right to counsel had been violated by a Des Moines police detective shortly after his arrest and that certain evidence obtained as a result of that violation had been wrongfully admitted into evidence at his trial.

USE OF INEVITABLE DISCOVERY DOCTRINE

Petitioner asserts that admission of evidence of discovery of the victim's body and other evidence resulting from that discovery violated his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself and his Sixth Amendment right to counsel, both applicable to states through the Fourteenth Amendment, under the "fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine." This contention requires a review of some facts and the holdings of the federal courts in the first habeas corpus proceeding. The facts are well recited in the United States Supreme Court opinion in Brewer v. Williams, supra, 430 U.S. at 390-93, 97 S.Ct. at 1235-36:

On the afternoon of December 24, 1968, a 10-year-old girl named Pamela Powers went with her family to the YMCA in Des Moines, Iowa, to watch a wrestling tournament in which her brother was participating. When she failed to return from a trip to the washroom, a search for her began. The search was unsuccessful.

Robert Williams, who had recently escaped from a mental hospital, was a resident of the YMCA. Soon after the girl's disappearance Williams was seen in the YMCA lobby carrying some clothing and a large bundle wrapped in a blanket. He obtained help from a 14-year-old boy in opening the street door of the YMCA and the door to his automobile parked outside. When Williams placed the bundle in the front seat of his car the boy "saw two legs in it and they were skinny and white." Before anyone could see what was in the bundle Williams drove away. His abandoned car was found the following day in Davenport, Iowa, roughly 160 miles east of Des Moines. A warrant was then issued in Des Moines for his arrest on a charge of abduction.

On the morning of December 26, a Des Moines lawyer named Henry McKnight went to the Des Moines police station and informed the officers present that he had just received a long-distance call from Williams, and that he had advised Williams to turn himself in to the Davenport police. Williams did surrender that morning to the police in Davenport, and they booked him on the charge specified in the arrest warrant and gave him the warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694. The Davenport police then telephoned their counterparts in Des Moines to inform them that Williams had surrendered. McKnight, the lawyer, was still at the Des Moines police headquarters, and Williams conversed with McKnight on the telephone. In the presence of the Des Moines chief of police and a police detective named Leaming, McKnight advised Williams that Des Moines police officers would be driving to Davenport to pick him up, that the officers would not interrogate him or mistreat him, and that Williams was not to talk to the officers about Pamela Powers until after consulting with McKnight upon his return to Des Moines. As a result of these conversations, it was agreed between McKnight and the Des Moines police officials that Detective Leaming 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.

In the meantime Williams was arraigned before a judge in Davenport on the outstanding arrest warrant. The judge advised him of his Miranda rights and committed him to jail. Before leaving the courtroom, Williams conferred with a lawyer named Kelly, who advised him not to make any statements until consulting with McKnight back in Des Moines.

Detective Leaming and his fellow officer arrived in Davenport about noon to pick up Williams and return him to Des Moines. Soon after their arrival they met with Williams and Kelly, who, they understood, was acting as Williams' lawyer. Detective Leaming repeated the Miranda warnings, and told Williams:

"We both know that you're being represented here by Mr. Kelly and you're being represented by Mr. McKnight in Des Moines, and ... I want you to remember this because we'll be visiting between here and Des Moines."

Williams then conferred again with Kelly alone, and after this conference Kelly reiterated to Detective Leaming that Williams was not to be questioned about the disappearance of Pamela Powers until after he had consulted with McKnight back in Des Moines. When Leaming expressed some reservations, Kelly firmly stated that the agreement with McKnight was to be carried out — that there was to be no interrogation of Williams during the automobile journey to Des Moines. Kelly was denied permission to ride in the police car back to Des Moines with Williams and the two officers.

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 "when 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 wideranging 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 Eve 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.

1 The fact of the matter, of course, was that Detective Leaming possessed no such knowledge.

At the first trial, Judge Denato denied petitioner's motion to suppress all evidence relating to or resulting from any statements petitioner made during the trip from Davenport to Des Moines on the ground that petitioner had waived his right to have an attorney present when he made the statements to Detective Leaming. Id. at 394, 97 S.Ct. at 1237. A bare majority...