State v. Savinskiy
State v. Savinskiy
Opinion of the Court
**804While defendant was incarcerated and awaiting trial on pending criminal charges, law enforcement officers learned that defendant had solicited another inmate to harm the prosecutor and murder two of the anticipated witnesses for the prosecution. Without notifying the lawyer who was representing defendant on the pending charges, the officers arranged for the other inmate to secretly record defendant in a conversation about his new criminal activity, and the state later charged defendant with multiple new offenses arising out of that new criminal activity. The Court of Appeals held that the recorded questioning violated defendant's Article I, section 11, right to counsel "[i]n all criminal prosecutions," and precludes the state from using defendant's incriminating statements to convict him of the new offenses. We disagree. We conclude that defendant's Article I, section 11, right to counsel, which arose because of the initially pending charges, was not a right to limited police scrutiny of new criminal activity in which defendant was engaging to illegally undermine the pending charges.
I. BACKGROUND
At the time of the recorded conversation, defendant was represented by counsel on multiple pending charges arising out of an earlier incident in which he engaged in a shootout with police at an Astoria motel, *559followed by an extended, high-speed car chase. When defendant's fellow inmate reported that defendant had offered him money and weapons to assault the prosecutor and to murder two of the state's witnesses, law enforcement officers used the information to obtain sealed, ex parte court orders that authorized them to record the conversations between defendant and the informant. During those recorded conversations, defendant discussed his plans for the new criminal activity, but he also discussed the pending case. **805A grand jury later amended defendant's existing indictment to add charges for offenses arising out of the new criminal activity, including two counts of conspiracy to commit murder of "another human being who was a witness in a criminal proceeding, *** related to the performance of official duties of [the witness] in the justice system," and one count of conspiracy to commit first degree assault against the prosecutor.
Before trial, defendant moved to suppress the evidence that the state obtained through the recorded conversations, arguing that the questioning violated his Article I, section 11, right to counsel because the officers had failed to notify defendant's attorney before directing the informant to question him. The trial court granted defendant's motion with respect to statements that defendant made about "anything related to" the original charges, on which he had been represented by counsel at the time of the questioning, but the court refused to suppress defendant's statements about the new criminal activity.
The new and original charges were tried together, and the state relied on defendant's statements about the new criminal activity as evidence that he was guilty of all of the charged offenses. The jury convicted defendant of the charges arising out of the original criminal activity as well as the conspiracy charges arising out of the new criminal activity.
On appeal, defendant assigned error to the trial court's ruling on the motion to suppress, renewing his argument that the state obtained his statements about the new criminal activity in violation of his Article I, section 11, right to counsel. While defendant's appeal was pending, this court decided State v. Prieto-Rubio ,
II. ANALYSIS
On review, the state does not dispute that "it was reasonably foreseeable that questioning *560about defendant's new conspiracy crimes would incriminate him for the originally charged crimes."
However, the question we ultimately must answer is whether Article I, section 11, guarantees a right to counsel during police questioning about the kind of new, uncharged **807criminal activity in which defendant was engaged. Answering that question is more complicated than simply asking if the test that we articulated in Prieto-Rubio can be applied to the police questioning in this case.
When construing a provision of the original Oregon Constitution, which includes the Article I, section 11, right to counsel, we consider "the text in its context, the historical circumstances of the adoption of the provision, and the case law that has construed it[,]" with the goal of identifying "the meaning most likely understood by those who adopted the provision" and, in light of that meaning, identifying "relevant underlying principles that may inform our application of the constitutional text to modern circumstances." State v. Davis ,
**808A. The Text and Evolving Construction of the Article I, section 11, Right to Counsel
Both Davis and Prieto-Rubio extensively considered the historical circumstances surrounding the adoption of Article I, section 11, and the case law construing it. As we explained in Prieto-Rubio , the Article I, section 11, guarantee of counsel "-like its federal counterpart, the Sixth Amendment to the federal constitution-was originally understood to apply only to the conduct of criminal trials."
"In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to public trial by an impartial jury in the county in which the offen[s]e shall have been committed; to be heard by himself and counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, and to have a copy thereof; to meet the witnesses face to face, and to *561have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor."
Or. Const. Art. I, § 11 (1857).
**809As Sparklin emphasizes, however, "the [A]rticle I, section 11 guarantee of an attorney, like the federal counterpart, remains focused on the trial; that is, it is the protection of rights to which a defendant is entitled in the trial itself which the guarantee is intended to preserve."
When the defendant was later prosecuted for the offenses against Davidson, he sought to suppress evidence from the interrogation as obtained in violation of his right to counsel under Article I, section 11.
As Sparklin explains:
"It is the fairness of the 'criminal prosecution' which counsel's presence helps to ensure. For this reason the [A]rticle **810I, section 11 right to an attorney is specific to the criminal episode in which the accused is charged. The prohibitions placed on the state's contact with a represented defendant do not extend to the investigation of factually unrelated criminal episodes."
Id . at 95,
Although the court's statement about interrogation regarding the Mansell offenses-which were not at issue on appeal-was unnecessary to the court's decision, the statement was not just gratuitous. Rather, the juxtaposition serves to clarify the court's holding regarding the scope of the protection that Article I, section 11, extends to a person who is subject to police questioning. Sparklin 's discussion of the Mansell offenses clarified that the right to counsel protects a defendant with respect to police questions about some uncharged offenses. However, Sparklin 's holding with respect to the Davidson offenses clarified that a defendant's right to the assistance of counsel in the prosecution of pending criminal charges is not so broad that it covers questions about all uncharged criminal activity. Finally, the court's ability to harmonize the two propositions illustrates that, in a single interrogation, the right to counsel may extend protection for some purposes but not others, depending on the extent to which the question will lead to "incriminating evidence or statements for use in the prosecution" of the offense to which the right to counsel has attached. Id . at 93,
**811We pause to emphasize that there is no dispute regarding the principle that a defendant's Article I, section 11, right to counsel on charged offenses shields the defendant from police inquiry into some uncharged criminal activity while erecting no barrier to police inquiry into other uncharged criminal activity. The issue in dispute is whether defendant's new criminal activity is the kind of uncharged criminal activity that falls beyond the boundary of Article I, section 11, protection.
Sparklin was this court's first attempt to identify the location of the line between questions about uncharged offenses to which the protection of Article I, section 11, extends and questions about other uncharged offenses to which Article I, section 11, extends no protection. In Sparklin , the facts and circumstances of the defendant's crimes against Mansell were sufficiently distinct from the facts and circumstances of his uncharged criminal activity against Davidson that the "criminal episode" test allowed this court to readily conclude that questioning about the Davidson incident fell on one side of the line while questioning about the Mansell incident fell on the other. However, the interrogation in Prieto-Rubio illustrated that Sparklin 's"criminal episode" test was inadequate to explain the scope of the Article I, section 11, right to counsel when police questioning involved uncharged crimes that shared significant overlap of facts and circumstances with charged crimes. See Prieto-Rubio ,
The defendant in Prieto-Rubio had been charged with first-degree sexual abuse of a child, A, and he had retained counsel. Id . at 19,
B. Prieto-Rubio does not resolve whether Article I, section 11, shielded defendant from questioning about his new criminal activity.
As the state recognizes, Prieto-Rubio 's test is phrased broadly enough that it can reach questioning about the kind of new criminal activity in which defendant was engaging. However, there are important factual distinctions between the uncharged criminal activity that the officers sought to investigate in Prieto-Rubio and the uncharged criminal activity that officers sought to investigate here. Prieto-Rubio addressed the scope of the right to counsel in the context of uncharged crimes that shared significant overlap of facts and circumstances with the charged crime and that were completed before the time that the state indicted the defendant for the abuse of his third victim. As this court explained, "whether charged and uncharged offenses are **813sufficiently related as to implicate the state constitutional right to counsel will depend on the facts and circumstances of each case[.]"
Here, by contrast, any duplication between the facts and circumstances of defendant's new criminal activity and the facts and circumstances of his charged crimes is minimal: the new criminal activity occurred in a different setting, involved different conduct, and involved victims who were targeted for a very different reason. Moreover, and more significantly, unlike the uncharged crimes in Prieto-Rubio , defendant's uncharged criminal activity began after he was charged with the original offenses, and the uncharged criminal activity involved his ongoing effort to harm the prosecutor and witnesses against him to obstruct the pending prosecution. We conclude that those factual distinctions are constitutionally significant.
C. The principles that govern the scope of Article I, section 11, do not apply to defendant's new criminal activity.
The scope of the Article I, section 11, right to counsel should be understood in the context of key principles that emerge from our discussion in Prieto-Rubio. In that opinion, we extensively discussed the competing views of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel that emerge from the Supreme Court's decision in Texas v. Cobb ,
The defendant in Cobb had burglarized his neighbor's house and, in the process, murdered the neighbor's wife and daughter, although they were initially reported only to be missing. After the defendant was charged with robbery and appointed counsel to represent him on that charge, police questioned the defendant about the missing wife and daughter without notifying his attorney and ultimately obtained his confession to the murders. Cobb ,
Prieto-Rubio makes clear that the result would have been different under Article I, section 11. By endorsing the conclusion and reasoning of the Cobb dissent, however, Prieto-Rubio also illustrates why Article I, section 11, should not be understood as shielding defendant in this case from the investigation into his new criminal activity.
The first concern that the Cobb dissent raised is that, because a "single instance of conduct" can involve numerous separate criminal offenses, the majority's rule would permit law enforcement officials to question a defendant "about his or her conduct on the single relevant occasion without notifying counsel unless the prosecutor has charged every possible crime arising out of that same brief course of conduct."
We noted that the Cobb majority's rule had been subject to similar criticism by other authors as well. Prieto-Rubio ,
The category of preexisting and completed uncharged offenses, which we addressed in Prieto-Rubio , also presents a potential for strategic manipulation. And we highlighted that concern in defining the scope of the defendant's Article I, section 11, right to counsel in a way that limited the state's inquiry into those uncharged offenses. As we explained, we rejected the state's proposal for a narrower scope in part because it "risks the sort of strategic charging behavior" for which the Cobb decision has been criticized.
That risk of strategic initial charging is not presented when a defendant who has already been charged decides to engage in new criminal activity. Although there remains an opportunity for the state to delay charging new *565criminal activity in order to investigate the new activity without the obstacle of counsel, it is not the kind of strategic manipulation about which we expressed concern in Prieto-Rubio . Rather, that strategy is a possibility in every criminal investigation, and it does not implicate Article I, section 11. See Davis , 350 Or. at 478-79,
This court's discussion of Cobb highlights another reason that Article I, section 11, should not be understood to erect barriers to the police inquiry into defendant's new criminal activity. As Prieto-Rubio explains, after Cobb adopted a narrow scope for the Sixth Amendment, other courts followed suit.
Yet even the scope that the Cobb dissenters would have adopted for the Sixth Amendment, and the scope that Indiana has adopted for its state constitution, would not extend as far as an inquiry into the kind of new criminal activity in which defendant was engaged. As the dissenting opinion in Cobb emphasizes, "the particular aspect of the right here at issue-the rule that the police ordinarily must communicate with the defendant through counsel-has important limits."
In Moulton , the Court had drawn a Sixth Amendment distinction between the state obtaining "incriminating statements pertaining to pending charges" without notifying counsel and the state obtaining incriminating statements about the kind of new criminal activity in which defendant was engaged.
When the same circumstances presented themselves in Indiana, the Indiana Court of Appeals concluded that the defendant's right to counsel on pending charges did not shield him from police questioning about his plan to murder a witness against him in a pending prosecution. Leonard v. State ,
In other words, neither the dissent in Cobb nor any other state has extended the scope of a defendant's constitutional right to counsel *566on charged offenses as far as the dissent would extend that right. We are sympathetic to the perspective of the Leonard court that "[t]he right to counsel is a shield against what may well be the coercive influences of the State" and that the "rule's salutary function cannot be distorted to immunize one represented by an attorney against investigative techniques that capture a new crime in progress."
As Sparklin emphasized and Prieto-Rubio reiterated, "the purpose of the Article I, section 11, right is to ensure that a defendant charged with a crime has the benefit of an attorney's presence, advice, and expertise 'in any situation where the state may glean involuntary and incriminating evidence or statements for use in the prosecution of its case against defendant.' "
We, thus, conclude that the Article I, section 11, right to counsel on pending charges does not guarantee that the state will provide notice to a defendant's attorney before questioning the defendant about a new, uncharged and ongoing conspiracy to harm witnesses to a pending prosecution.
D. Application of the Rule to this Case.
The Court of Appeals followed the test that we articulated in Prieto-Rubio to conclude that the police violated defendant's Article I, section 11, right to counsel when they used an informant to question him about his conspiracy to harm the prosecutor and witnesses against him on the pending charges, because that is the kind of criminal activity that tends to incriminate a defendant with respect to pending charges. But we have concluded that the scope of the protection guaranteed by Article I, section 11, does not reach so broadly. Thus, the trial court did not err in allowing the state to use defendant's statements to prosecute him for the new criminal activity. On that issue, we disagree with the conclusion of the Court of Appeals.
The Court of Appeals also reversed and remanded some of defendant's convictions on the original charges, because the trial court allowed the state to use defendant's uncounseled statements about the new crimes to prosecute him for those original offenses. The premise of the court's ruling was that the statements were obtained in violation of defendant's right to counsel and, thus, must **820be excluded. This court declined to review the issue that the state raised in challenge to that ruling. However, a different issue arises from our conclusion that police did not violate defendant's Article I, section 11, right to counsel when they questioned him about the new criminal activity. Because that conclusion rejects the premise of the Court of Appeals' ruling that the statements must be excluded, we expect that questions about that ruling almost certainly will arise in a retrial of the original charges, so we briefly address the issue.
Although defendant's right to counsel on the original, pending charges did not prevent the state from questioning him about his new criminal activity, we agree with the Court of Appeals that the trial court erred in allowing the state to use defendant's statements to prosecute him for the original charges. As we have explained, the fundamental purpose of the Article I, section 11, guarantee of an attorney "is the protection of rights to which a defendant is entitled in the trial itself[.]" Prieto-Rubio ,
III. CONCLUSION
Accordingly, the decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed as to defendant's convictions for conspiracy to commit murder (Counts 17-19) and otherwise affirmed. The **821judgment of the trial court is reversed and remanded as to defendant's convictions for crimes charged in the original indictment but is otherwise affirmed.
Duncan, J., dissented and filed an opinion, in which Walters, C. J., and Nelson, J., joined.
We use the phrase "new criminal activity" as a shorthand to describe the circumstances of defendant's post-charging conspiracy to commit new crimes against the prosecutor and witnesses in the pending prosecution. We do not decide how Article I, section 11, would apply to other post-charging criminal activity.
The jury found defendant not guilty of other new charges alleging that defendant engaged in solicitation to commit murder against the witnesses and assault against the prosecutor. In addition, one of the original charges, attempted possession of a destructive device, was not submitted to the jury, and guilty verdicts for the original charges of attempted assault merged with defendant's convictions for attempted murder.
The Court of Appeals had initially affirmed defendant's convictions without opinion, but this court vacated and remanded for consideration in light of Prieto-Rubio .
The Court of Appeals concluded that the trial court's failure to suppress the evidence required reversal of defendant's convictions on the original charges of attempted aggravated murder and attempted possession of a firearm silencer. But the court affirmed defendant's convictions on the other seven original charges on the basis that there was little likelihood that the erroneously admitted evidence affected the jury's verdict. Savinskiy ,
Under the circumstances of this case, we analyze the directed questioning by the informant as equivalent to questioning by the police. See State v. Smith ,
The right to counsel in Oregon arises from two separate constitutional provisions. In addition to the Article I, section 11, guarantee of counsel to a person charged with a crime, a person who is placed in custody or other compelling circumstance has a "right to have the advice of counsel in responding to police questioning" that is "derivative or adjunct" to the Article I, section 12, right against compelled self-incrimination. State v. Turnidge ,
Although the state frames its challenge to the decision of the Court of Appeals as a question of whether the evidence should be excluded, without disputing that the questioning violated defendant's right to counsel on the pending charges, the core of the state's argument is that the nature of the Article I, section 11, right to counsel requires a different result under these circumstances. Moreover, in deciding what a constitutional provision means, "this court is duty-bound to interpret the law correctly, without regard to the parties' arguments or lack thereof." State v. Vallin ,
Article I, section 11, was amended in 1932 and 1934 to include additional guarantees concerning jury verdicts in first-degree murder trials.
We explained in Prieto-Rubio that "both state and federal courts expanded their views of the 'criminal prosecution' that triggered the right to counsel, so that the constitutional guarantee applied as early as the commencement of criminal proceedings by indictment or other formal charge." 359 Or. at 24,
When New York's highest court later abandoned the "New York rule" that this court rejected in Sparklin, its criticism included that the prior rule, "without apparent reason, had provided 'a dispensation' for persistent offenders for it is the common criminal, not the first-time offender, who will nearly always have representation on a pending charge and thus be immunized from questioning in subsequent investigations[.]" People v. Bing ,
We emphasize that this distinction arises from the offense-specific nature of the Article I, section 11, right to counsel. Other rights guaranteed in Article I are person-specific and apply regardless of whether a crime has been charged or is being committed. See, e.g. , State v. Lien ,
We reiterate that Article I, section 12, is an additional source of a right to counsel during custodial interrogation, but that right is not at issue in this case.
Dissenting Opinion
The proper result in this case flows directly from a defendant's constitutional right to counsel and this court's prior decisions concerning the scope of that right. Article I, section 11, guarantees a criminal defendant the right to counsel. Or. Const., Art. I, § 11 (providing that, in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the right "to be heard by *** counsel"). That constitutional right includes the right to have counsel present *568during certain pretrial encounters with the state. State v. Sparklin ,
In this case, there is no dispute that, when defendant was represented by counsel on pending charges, a state agent questioned him without first notifying his counsel. There is also no dispute that it was reasonably foreseeable that the questioning would lead to incriminating evidence concerning the pending charges. Indeed, the state expressly concedes the questioning "violated the Prieto-Rubio rule, because it was reasonably foreseeable that questioning about defendant's new *** crimes would incriminate him for the originally charged crimes." Under this court's precedents, the questioning violated defendant's Article I, section 11, rights as to the pending charges. And, the state so concedes, stating that "the questioning risked circumventing defendant's right to counsel in his pending prosecution and thus violated his right to counsel for the original charges."
**822Nevertheless, the majority holds otherwise. 364 Or. at 819-20, 441 P.3d 557. It holds that the questioning did not violate defendant's Article I, section 11, rights. In doing so, it departs from this court's prior cases and the constitutional principles that underlie them in order reach its preferred result given the particular facts of this case. It offers no principled reason for its result. Instead, as explained below, it attempts to distinguish this case from this court's precedents based on differences that are irrelevant to the legal issue, which is whether the questioning could implicate the defendant in the charged crimes. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
As the majority recounts, defendant was initially charged with crimes relating to a shootout and a car chase, and counsel was appointed to represent defendant on those charges. While defendant was in jail, the police-acting through an informant-questioned him. The questioning concerned defendant's offer to pay the informant to assault the prosecutor and murder witnesses in defendant's pending case. 364 Or. at 804-05, 441 P.3d at ----. Thus, the questioning was relevant to whether defendant was attempting to obstruct the prosecution of the charged crimes. That, in turn, was relevant to whether defendant committed the charged crimes. See, e.g ., State v. Barone ,
As the police and prosecutor recognized, the initially charged crimes and the subsequently charged crimes were related, because evidence that defendant was involved **823in the latter would incriminate him on the former. Therefore, it is striking that the majority bases its result, in part, on the notion that the two sets of crimes are not sufficiently related. 364 Or. at 812-14, 441 P.3d at ----. That is not a view that anyone has, or reasonably could, take in this case. When a police officer questions a defendant about whether he has taken steps to conceal a *569charged crime "it is objectively reasonably foreseeable that the questioning will lead to incriminating evidence" about the charged crime. Prieto-Rubio , 359 Or. at 18,
In Sparklin , the defendant was arrested for forgery in Eugene after using a credit card belonging to another person, Mansell. The defendant was arraigned and counsel was appointed to represent him on the forgery. Thereafter, two Portland detectives interrogated the defendant, without notifying his counsel. The detectives had information implicating the defendant in an incident in which Mansell had been assaulted and his automobile and credit cards stolen. They questioned the defendant about the assault of Mansell, as well as an unrelated robbery and murder of another man, Davidson.
On review, this court concluded that the questioning about the Mansell assault violated the defendant's Article I, section 11, rights, reasoning that, even though the defendant had not been charged with the assault, the questioning was improper because the assault was related to the forgery.
Thus, in Sparklin this court concluded that Article I, section 11, prohibits the state from questioning a represented **824defendant about uncharged crimes if the uncharged crimes are related to the charged crimes on which the defendant is represented. Id . That prohibition is based on the principle that a defendant has the right to have counsel present during any pretrial adversarial contact "at which the state's case may be enhanced or the defense impaired due to the absence of counsel." Id . at 95,
Importantly, the prohibition on questioning is intended to protect the attorney-client relationship. As this court explained in Sparklin , "To permit officers to question a represented suspect in the absence of counsel encourages them to undermine the suspect's decision to rely upon counsel. Such interrogation subverts the attorney-client relationship ." Id . at 93,
In Prieto-Rubio , this court addressed the scope of the Article I, section 11, prohibition on questioning a represented defendant. The defendant was charged with sexual abuse of a girl, A, who was a member of his extended family. After counsel was appointed to represent the defendant on the charges involving A, a detective questioned the defendant about whether he had sexually abused two other girls, K and L, who were also members of his extended family. The detective knew that the defendant was represented on the charges involving A, but did not notify the defendant's counsel before questioning the defendant because he intended to ask only about K and L. 359 Or. at 19,
On review, this court reversed. It set forth what it identified as "the correct rule" for determining whether police questioning about uncharged crimes violates a defendant's Article I, section 11, rights. Id . at 33,
Applying that test, this court held that the challenged questioning violated the defendant's Article I, section 11, rights because "it was reasonably foreseeable to a person in [the detective's] position, that questioning about K and L would elicit incriminating information about the charged abuse of A." Id . This court observed that there were similarities and differences between the alleged crimes against A and those against K and L.
The majority attempts to distinguish this case from Prieto-Rubio based on what it describes as "important factual distinctions" between the uncharged conduct in this case and the uncharged conduct in Prieto-Rubio .
"The facts and circumstances of the charged crime in Prieto-Rubio duplicated to a significant extent the earlier, uncharged crimes because, as this court emphasized, all the crimes were committed in the defendant's home, all involved similar types of physical conduct, and all involved child-victims who were members of the defendant's family.
"Here, by contrast, any duplication between the facts and circumstances of defendant's new criminal activity and the facts of his charged crimes is minimal: the new criminal activity occurred in a different setting, involved different conduct, and involved victims who were targeted for a very different reason."
Id . at 813, --- P.3d at ----. But those factual differences are irrelevant to whether the defendant has an interest in having counsel present. A defendant has an interest-which is protected by Article I, section 11-in having counsel present for questioning on subjects relevant to counsel's representation on charged crimes, including questioning about uncharged crimes that could incriminate the defendant on the charged crimes. It does not matter whether the uncharged crimes are similar to the charged crimes or not. See Sparklin ,
And, contrary to the majority's other factual distinction, it does not matter whether the uncharged crimes are new. Prieto-Rubio would not have come out differently if the crimes against K and L had occurred after the crimes against A or even after the defendant had been charged with the crimes against A, because what mattered was whether the questioning about the crimes against K and L was reasonably likely to elicit information that would incriminate the defendant on the charged offense, which did not depend on the relative timing of the crimes.
The questioning in this case was impermissible under Sparklin and Prieto-Rubio . It violated defendant's Article I, section 11, rights because it was reasonably foreseeable that it would elicit incriminating evidence-specifically, evidence of consciousness of guilt-about the charged offense. Because the state violated defendant's Article I, section 11, rights, it cannot use the evidence it obtained as a result of that violation. Prieto-Rubio ,
**828Despite Sparklin and Prieto-Rubio , the majority holds that the questioning in this case did not violate defendant's Article I, section 11, rights. 364 Or. at 819-20, 441 P.3d at ----. The majority bases its holding, in part, on the premise that the right to counsel under Article I, section 11, is a trial right. 364 Or. at 809, 441 P.3d at ----. It is true that Article I, section 11, guarantees an individual the right to counsel at trial. But that is not all that it does. The Article I, section 11, right to counsel is not a hollow right; it does more than merely guarantee a defendant that a lawyer will be present in court when a case is called for trial. As discussed above, it includes the right to have counsel present during adversarial investigative proceedings that are reasonably likely to elicit evidence that the state could use against the defendant in the prosecution of the charged crimes. See Sparklin ,
The majority carves out an exception to that right, based on factual differences that, as explained above, are irrelevant. The majority does so simply because it does not like the effect of the right to counsel in this particular case. It states that defendant's right to counsel "should not be understood to erect barriers to the police inquiry into defendant's new criminal activity." 364 Or. at 816, 441 P.3d at 565.
The majority's concern with the state's ability to investigate and prosecute crimes is understandable; the investigation and prosecution *572of crimes are essential government functions. But there are limits-constitutional limits-on how the state can perform those functions. Violations of the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to remain silent, the right to counsel, and the right to a jury might be effective investigative and prosecutorial tools, but they are not permissible ones. The constitution guarantees individuals rights and those rights can-and were intended to-restrict the scope of government actions, including actions taken to investigate and prosecute crimes.
Of course, that is not to say that the state cannot investigate and prosecute defendant in this case or a **829defendant in any other case. The restriction Article I, section 11, imposes is limited. It does not prohibit the police from questioning a defendant. It requires only that, if it is reasonably foreseeable that the questioning will incriminate the defendant on a charge for which the defendant has counsel, that the police notify the defendant's counsel and afford counsel a reasonable opportunity to be present for the questioning. If it is not reasonably foreseeable that the questioning will incriminate the defendant on a charge for which the defendant has counsel, then the questioning can occur without such notice and opportunity to be present.
The majority mentions the harm of a blanket prohibition of all questioning of a defendant who has counsel on pending charges. 364 Or. at 817-18, 441 P.3d at ----. But no one is advocating for a blanket prohibition in this case. This court rejected such a prohibition in Sparklin , the defendant did not argue for one in Prieto-Rubio , and defendant is not arguing for one here. Instead, he is arguing for application of the Prieto-Rubio rule.
That rule creates an objective test for determining whether questioning violates a defendant's Article I, section 11, right to counsel, which includes the right not to be questioned without counsel on subjects relevant to counsel's representation on charged crimes. Defense counsel's role is to protect the defendant's rights, which themselves are intended to ensure the fairness and integrity of criminal proceedings. Contrary to the suggestion in the majority opinion, defense counsel's role is not to assist a defendant in the commission of crimes. 364 Or. at 819, 441 P.3d at ----.
The Article I, section 11, prohibition on questioning without counsel does not depend on an officer's motivation for asking the question. Nevertheless, the majority appears to hold that whether questioning violates a defendant's Article I, section 11, rights depends on the subjective intent of the officer. It reasons that the questioning in this case did not violate defendant's Article I, section 11, rights on the charged crimes because the state was seeking information from defendant to disrupt or prosecute his new criminal activity. 364 Or. at 814, 441 P.3d at ----. Thus, the majority appears to hold that whether a question violates a defendant's **830Article I, section 11, rights depends on the purpose of the questioning. That approach is inconsistent with this court's precedent, which is concerned with the content, not the purpose of questioning. Prieto-Rubio , 359 Or. at 37,
Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
The state concedes that it should not have joined the initial charges and the subsequent charges in this case and should not do so in future similar cases.
To be clear, the fact that a charged crime is similar to an uncharged crime is relevant to whether questioning about the latter is likely to incriminate a defendant on the former, as in Prieto-Rubio . But similarity between two crimes is not required for questioning about one to be incriminating about the other. As this court stated in Prieto-Rubio , there are a number of factors which are relevant to whether it is reasonably foreseeable that questioning about uncharged crimes will elicit incriminating information involving a charged crime, including "temporal proximity, location, nature of defendant's conduct, and the nature of the investigation process itself and whether it involves the same or separate personnel." 359 Or. at 36-37,
Reference
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- STATE of Oregon, on Review v. Yevgeniy Pavlovich SAVINSKIY, on Review.
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