The Miranda decision was decided decades ago. When the decision was reached by the United States Supreme Court they made it clear that when you are arrested you must be read your Miranda rights and unless you clearly waive those rights the police are not allowed to speak to you without your lawyer being present. This was decided because of decades of abuse by the police in obtaining “tainted” confessions due to intimidation and other coercive measures. This lead to hundreds of persons being wrongfully convicted based upon invalid admissions or confessions.
However, over the past ten years the current United States Supreme Court, lead by a conservative majority have slowly but surely weakened our citizens rights under “Miranda” so that they are now considered all but worthless. The burden is now on the accused to make absolutely and 100% clear that they do not want to speak without a lawyer.
Making any statements short of those exact words and the police will be allowed to continue to badger you in an attempt to get a confession out of you.
Recently, even though a juvenile who was accused of a crime repeatedly begged to have his mother present before he answered questions, the court of appeals held that did not mean the police had to stop questioning him.
In other cases, where the defendant says things such as “I think I need my lawyer” or “Don’t I need to have my lawyer” or “can you get me a lawyer” that has been held NOT BE GOOD ENOUGH to convince the court that what the defendants were saying is that they didn’t want to speak to the cops without a lawyer.
So spread the word to everyone you know. If you are a loved one is arrested, repeat the following sentence when the police come to speak to you over and over:
“I REFUSE TO SPEAK TO YOU WITHOUT MY LAWYER BEING PRESENT”. No matter what the police say to you or how they ask you a question just keep repeating the one sentence above. Then stop talking and do not say another word. IF you follow this advice then you will be protecting yourself and you will make it easier for our criminal defense law firm to work with you to win your case.
We would sure like your comments on this blog and whether you have had an experience with the police where they tried to get you to make statements to them after you had been arrested.
