The Supreme Court reversed the conviction in People v. Henderson, an automatic direct appeal from a death penalty judgment imposed for a 1997 Riverside County home invasion robbery/murder. The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Carol Corrigan holds the defendant’s confession, admitted at his trial, was improperly obtained because he tried to halt police questioning by “reinvok[ing]” his Miranda rights after he had first waived them.
The court concludes, “Officers are permitted to encourage a subject to talk and to challenge statements as untrue. What they cannot do is brush aside a clear invocation” of the right to counsel.
