Miranda Rights Flashcards
Miranda rights
To protect the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, a person in police custody must be given certain warnings (the Miranda warnings) before a police officer may conduct a custodial interrogation. The Fifth Amendment privilege against self0incrimination and Miranda are applicable to the states though the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Any statement, question, or conduct by the police designed to elicit an incriminating response will be considered interrogation. A person will be considered to be in custody if his freedom of action is limited in a significant way.
Waiver of Miranda right to be silent
A suspect may subsequently waive his Miranda rights by making a confession, as long as the waiver was knowing and voluntary. Courts will look to the totality of the circumstances in determining whether this standard was met, but it is probably sufficient if the suspect received Miranda warnings and then chose to answer questions. If the Miranda warnings were given, a voluntary confession will be admissible even if the police fail to inform the detainee that his lawyer is attempting to see him, so long as adversary judicial proceedings have not commenced. Once a person explicitly and unequivocally invokes his right to remain silent, all questioning related to the particular crime must stop. However, the police may reinitiate questioning after the defendant invoked his right to remain silent, as long as they scrupulously honor the defendant’s request. This means, at the very least, that the police may not badger the defendant into talking and must wait a significant time before reinitiating questioning.
Waiver of Miranda right to an attorney
The Fifth Amendment, applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, provides that no person may be compelled to give self-incriminating testimony. The Supreme Court has held that to protect this privilege agaisnt self-incrimination, a person in police custody must be given the Miranda warnings before a police officer may conduct a custodial interrogation. At any time prior to or during a custodial interrogation, the accused may invoke a Miranda (Fifth Amendment) right to counsel. If the accused invokes this right, all questioning must cease (including questioning about a different crime) until the accused is provided with an attorney or initiates further questioning himself. The request for an attorney must be unambiguous and must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable police officer in the same situation would understand the statement to be a request for counsel. The police have no duty to seek a clarification of an unambiguous request.
