1.17 - 3. The Bing Decision Overrules The Bartolomeo Decision (Overruled In 1990)

• Jurisdiction: New York

3. The Bing Decision Overrules the Bartolomeo Decision (Overruled in 1990)

From 1981 until 1990, the Rogers rule applied where the interrogating police were not aware that the defendant was represented but were aware that the defendant had been recently arrested for a different, unrelated crime.⁵¹ It brought about unintended consequences.

For nine years, a derivative, indelible right to counsel was whittled away because it was theory at war with reality. The rule did not apply where a defendant had a pending criminal case, but no attorney actually represented him or her on that case at the time of police questioning regarding the unrelated crimes.⁵² The Court also held the former rule inapplicable where, although defendant’s legal representation on a case was continuing, the case itself “terminated.”⁵³ The Court further limited the applicability of the former rule by focusing on the knowledge actually possessed by the police interrogator, holding in a series of cases that where the interrogating officer is not aware of pending charges, other police officers’ knowledge of such charges would not be imputed to him.⁵⁴ Also increasingly limited was the scope and extent of the duty to inquire. Even where the interrogating officer had personal knowledge of prior charges against a defendant, the officer did not need to verify the status of those charges independently but could rely on the defendant’s own statement that the charges were no longer pending.⁵⁵

...