preview

Why Do People Have To Invoke Their Miranda Rights

Decent Essays

The court ruled in favor of the majority that in order to invoke one’s Miranda rights, the defendant must do in a way that is “unambiguously”. The defendant must express in a clear way that they want to invoke their Miranda rights. One reason that the majority gave was that the defendant must understand their Miranda rights and that to waive their rights, they must do so by making a statement to the police that was not pressurized. This means that the defendant must talk to the police with their free will. They cannot be intimidated or forced to talk to the police. The defendant must understand that by talking freely to the police, that they have waived their right to remain silent. A second reason that the majority gave was that the …show more content…

They can simply ignore the police. The defendant cannot be forced to speak with the police. The police cannot threat the safety of the defendant. The police can continue trying to get the suspect to talk, but the suspect always has the right to remain silent as long as they have not yet waived their right. A fourth reason that the majority gave was that the defendant must understand that to invoke their Miranda rights, they must do in a way that does not give more than one interpretation. A defendant being quiet does not automatically mean that they are invoking their Miranda rights. They have to invoke their Miranda rights in a clear manner. Their statement is not allowed to have more than one meaning. If it does, then the statement is not “unambiguous”. If the statement of the defendant is ambiguous then they are not invoking their Miranda rights. A fifth reason that the majority gave was that it does not matter how long the defendant has remained silent, once they have spoken to the police with their own free will then they have waived their right to remain to silent. The defendant can remain silent for hours and end up talking to the police a few hours later. This means that the defendant has waived their right to remain silent. The Miranda rights were not invoked just because the defendant remained silent for …show more content…

One reason that the dissenting gave was that a long duration of silence should imply invoking one’s Miranda rights. They say this because if the defendant had wanted to waiver their Miranda rights then they would have already done so. They would not have remained silent for such a long period of time. It would be pointless to remain silent if they did not wish to invoke their Miranda rights. A second reason that the dissenting gave was that the ruling was going against the Miranda rights because the suspect would have to speak in order to invoke their right to remain silent. This is strange because the suspect has the right to remain silent yet they would have to speak in order to invoke that right. It seems more like the opposite of Miranda

Get Access