Summaries of Successful Cases Under
Massiah v. United States
or
United States v. Henry  
Through August 2004

 

INTRODUCTION.

Winston Massiah and a codefendant, Colson, were indicted in 1958 for possession of narcotics aboard a United States vessel. Massiah pled not guilty, retained a lawyer, and was released on bail. Shortly thereafter, Colson agreed to cooperate with the government and to have a radio transmitter installed in his car, which was subsequently used to transmit a conversation between Massiah and Colson to a federal agent parked nearby. At his trial, incriminating statements made by Massiah during that conversation were introduced over defense counsel's objections, and Massiah was convicted. In reversing his conviction the Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment prohibits deliberate elicitation by the government or its agents of incriminating information from a defendant after he has been indicted and in the absence of his counsel. Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201 (1964).

Massiah is clearly understood to stand for the proposition that deliberate elicitation of incriminating statements by government agents after the proceedings against the defendant have become adversarial is impermissible. The rationale is that, to preserve the functional integrity of our adversarial system, it is vital that, once proceedings have been initiated, attempts to circumvent the protections afforded by counsel can not be tolerated. See United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264 (1980).

This document contains summaries of successful Massiah cases. They are divided into the following basic categories: (1) United States Supreme Court; (2) United States Courts of Appeals; (3) United States District Courts; and (4) State Courts.

If you know of other successful Massiah cases not included in this document please advise Mark Olive at Meolive@aol.com