Sweat Et Al. v. Arkansas

Justice Brennan, with whom Justice Marshall joins,

dissenting.

After the State of Arkansas had initiated formal criminal proceedings against the petitioners Russell and Richard (“Bud”) Sweat, a state undercover agent contacted the Sweats and, in a series of telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings, deliberately elicited incriminating statements from them. Because the Sweats’ right to counsel had accrued when formal criminal proceedings were begun, the prosecution’s introduction at trial of these subsequent statements clearly violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. See, e. g.,…