+

Cookies on the Business Insider India website

Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.

Close
HomeQuizzoneWhatsappShare Flash Reads
 

You Don't Have A Constitutional Right To Have Your Rights Read To You

Apr 22, 2013, 19:07 IST

NBCThe Justice Department's decision that it wouldn't read the Boston bombing suspect his Miranda warning right away sounds unconstitutional, but it's totally legal for the cops to deny anybody that warning.

Advertisement

Nineteen-year-old Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not hear hear that he has the right to remain silent or have an attorney before he was questioned, among other Miranda rights, until Monday. (Tsarnaev was taken into custody on Friday.)

Most people have their Miranda rights read to them before they're questioned because the Supreme Court ruled in 1966 that prosecutors couldn't use a defendant's own statements against him in court if he hasn't been advised of these rights.

Police are still perfectly free to question any suspect who hasn't been Mirandized. They just can't use anything the suspect says against him in a court of law until he has been.

And there's even an exception to that rule.

Advertisement

Police can use statements defendants made without getting Mirandized if they need to question a suspect in order to protect the public's safety, the Supreme Court ruled in 1984.

In October 2010, the FBI issued a guidance for how to apply this "public safety exemption" to terrorism suspects. The memo noted that "an arrest of an operational terrorist may warrant significantly more public safety interrogation" than ordinary criminal cases.

While that guidance would seem to apply to the Boston marathon suspect, the decision not to Mirandize him right away has spurred a debate over the rights of terrorism suspects.

Anthony D. Romero, who heads the American Civil Liberties Union, told The New York Times the FBI should only be questioning the non-Mirandized Tsarnaev about imminent threats like other bombs that might be planted.

“The public safety exception to Miranda should be a narrow and limited one, and it would be wholly inappropriate and unconstitutional to use it to create the case against the suspect,” Romero told The Times.

Advertisement
You are subscribed to notifications!
Looks like you've blocked notifications!
Next Article