Montejo v. Louisiana

Montejo v Louisiana
Student’s Name
Institution’s Name
Montejo v Louisiana
Capsule
Montejo wrote an incriminating letter to the wife of the person he had was accused of killing. In Montejo, the court had to determine the allowed overlap between the Sixth and Fifth Amendments. It got held that defendants who miscarry in law and on a personal level to call on their right to counsel could waive their right to a lawyer willingly. The Fifth Amendment attaches when cited by the defendant (Montejo v. Louisiana, 2018a).
Facts
Montejo was accused and found culpable of first-degree murder by the state of Louisiana. As a norm during the preliminary hearing, Montejo got assigned counsel, but he did not acknowledge the appointment; it is the law for the courts in Louisiana to appoint counsels for the accused. Montejo proceeded to write an incriminating letter to the wife of the deceased. The prosecution tendered the letter as evidence in court. The defendant was convicted based on the message of apology written to the dead’s wife (Montejo v. Louisiana, 2018).
Issue
The court upon reviewing of the presented evidence and the circumstances of the case, the settled on determining if a criminal defendant who has not personally or formally invoked the right to counsel can get questioned by the prosecution after waiver of Miranda rights, as long as the reservation is consistent with the Sixth Amendment.
Holding
The court affirmed that a defendant who had not formally or personally invoked their right to counsel could voluntarily waive their right to counsel even when there exists a court-appointed lawyer.

Also, the Fifth Amendment attaches only when cited, and the Sixth Amendment does not attach until the commencement of adversarial proceedings (Montejo v. Louisiana, 2018a).
Reason
The rule as already established in Michigan v. Jackson (475 U.S. 625 [1986] did not apply anymore hence the holding of the court. The legal precedent as presented in Jackson was supposed to stop the prosecution from harassing defendants; therefore it did not apply to instances where the defendant fails to affirm his Miranda rights (Montejo v. Louisiana, 2018a).
Case significance
The ruling in the case meant that police would still question defendants who choose to waive their right to counsel (Montejo v. Louisiana, 2018).

References
Montejo v. Louisiana. (2018). Oyez. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from https://www.oyez.org/cases/2008/07-1529Montejo v. Louisiana. (2018a). Law.cornell.edu. Retrieved 31 January 2018, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-1529.ZS.html