And the US slips further from being civilised

[pecunium]

Yesterday I was happy to announce China adopted an exclusionary rule and (in theory) banned torture by removing the incentive.

The US, so I find out today, just, effectively, did away with Miranda.

The case came from Southfield, Mich., where a shooting suspect refused to sign a statement acknowledging that he had been given the Miranda warning but didn't expressly state he was invoking his right to remain silent.

Kennedy said, writing for the majority (guess who they were), "If Thompkins wanted to remain silent, he could have said nothing in response to [the detective's] questions, or he could have unambiguously invoked his Miranda rights and ended the interrogation." He also said, ""the interrogation was conducted in a standard-size room in the middle of the afternoon," conditions that weren't inherently coercive."

Right. A standard room, three cops, three hours. Not allowed to leave and told anything he says will be used against him. He stands mute, for three hours, and responds to a "gotcha" question.

I've always said the thing to tell a cop, when he wants to talk to you about anything more than what you saw, when he arrives to the scene of an event you witnessed is, "I'll be glad to talk to you when my lawyer gets here."

All the more so now.

Comments

[elf]

How can one "unambiguously invoke" one's right to "remain silent?" Doesn't invoking it, remove the silence?

Gah.

And geeze, cops wonder why they don't get cooperation from poor urban communities.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

As I said above the previous understanding of the law was that one had to affirmatively waive the right; sign that one understands speaking is a risk, and that one knows all that follows is voluntary.

Now the reverse is true. Unless one specifically (by formula) invokes the right, it's presumptively waived.

[elf]

The ruling has some terrifying implications for non-native English speakers and people with cognitive disabilities. The idea that "after giving a Miranda warning, police may interrogate a suspect who has neither invoked nor waived his rights"--very much says "if the suspect is incapable of understanding and asserting his rights, he doesn't have any."