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Supreme Court to take new look at Miranda right to remain silent
By David G. Savage - Los Angeles Times - Monday, November 25, 2002
OXNARD, Calif. � Maybe you don't have a right to remain silent after all.
The Supreme Court in its famous Miranda ruling told police they must respect the rights of people who are held for questioning. Officers must warn them of their right to remain silent and, equally important, honor their refusal to talk further. But the Supreme Court is about to reconsider that widely known rule, in the case of a farmworker here who was shot five times after a brief encounter with the police. Legal experts say the case has the potential to reshape the law governing everyday encounters between police and the public. While the farmworker lay gravely wounded, a police supervisor pressed him to explain his version of the events. He survived, paralyzed and blinded, and sued the police for, among other things, coercive interrogation. The Oxnard police assert that the Miranda ruling does not include a "constitutional right to be free of coercive interrogation" but only a right not to have forced confessions used at trial. The Bush administration has sided with the Oxnard police in the case. Police can hold people in custody and force them to talk, so long as their incriminating statements are not used to prosecute them, argues a brief to the court filed by U.S. Solicitor Gen. Theodore Olson and Michael Chertoff, the chief of the Justice Department's criminal division. It "will chill legitimate law enforcement efforts to obtain potentially life-saving information during emergencies," including terrorism alerts, if police and FBI agents can be sued for coercive questioning, they add. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Dec. 4. Legal experts on the other side of the case foresee far-reaching effects if the Oxnard police prevail. "This will be, in essence, a reversal of Miranda," said Susan Klein, professor of law at the University of Texas. "Officers will be told Miranda is not a constitutional right. If there is no right and you are not liable, why should you honor the right to silence?" she asked. "I think it means you will see more police using threats and violence to get people to talk. Innocent people will be subjected to very unpleasant experiences."

****OK now, just bend over and grab your ankles...****

posted by An Old Curmudgeon 1:11 PM