Miranda Rights
 

I didn't see a thread about this topic, but thought it interesting (and important) to at least post.

You still have the right to remain silent but now you must invoke that right.

Quoted from the article: "Tuesday's Supreme Court decision in Berghuis v. Thompkins -- holding that, after being informed of their rights, suspects must explicitly tell police that they want to stay silent to invoke their Miranda protections -- indeed turns Miranda "upside down," as one dissenting justice put it.

Its potential consequences are as predictable as night following day: Police will interrogate criminal suspects who do not explicitly invoke their rights -- often, those will be suspects who are unsophisticated, poorly educated or mentally ill -- for hours on end. This will lead, just as inevitably, to more coerced -- and therefore unreliable -- confessions. And this will result in wrongful incarceration and diminish our collective security. This is the very phenomenon that Miranda aimed to eliminate."



http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/0...ef=igoogle_cnn

"You have the right to remain silent....." means that the arrestee must say "I wish to invoke my right to remain silent?"

I don't think that makes literal sense in that "you have the right to an attorney" doesn't mean that the person automatically waives their right to an attorney. They have to explicitly state they don't want representation, correct?

So, to invoke rights should be a given and to waive the rights should be stated.

Actaully this makes a lot of sense. You're specifying that you invoke your right to make the interrogation end. THAT is what the ruling refers to as I understand it. It's a bit like having to say that you refuse to testify under the fifth amendment.

Same with asking for an attorney, it's not that you waive your right, but until you invoke it they can keep talking to you.

/Law and Order has taught me this

With all that logic, you have no future in politics. :p

Oh yeah, you have to say "I wish to speak to my attorney." (or "where my lawyer at?!?!?!")

I had it backwards.

*Doink Doink*

PraysdaLawd!!! DurrisaGawd!! :p