Smith v. Illinois

The petitioner Steven Smith was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to a 9-year prison term. He contends that the police improperly elicited a confession from him after he clearly had requested the assistance of counsel, and that *92the trial court’s refusal to suppress the confession therefore violated Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), and Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U. S. 477 (1981). The Illinois Supreme Court held that Smith’s responses to continued police questioning rendered his initial request for counsel “ambiguous,” and that the officers therefore were not required to terminate…