Speak Up To Remain Silent
We’ve all heard of Miranda. We’ve all heard of Miranda rights. Hopefully you haven’t heard them in person, as in, having them read to you. Hopefully it’s only been on television. Me? I’ve never had them read to me personally, but I have heard them a lot. I’m a DUI attorney.
Miranda rights are these, basically: you have the right to remain silent; anything you say can and will be sued against you; you have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you. That’s it. Pretty simple, pretty basic, but extremely empowering.
And, up until this week, all you had to do to exert these rights was keep your mouth shut. Up until this week, if the cops read you Miranda and you don’t provide any response, the rule was that you have in fact invoked those rights. This means the cops have to stop talking to you.
But, then the Supreme Court heard a case, and decided, “you know what, silence is too easy. We think they should say something.” And they decided that way.
The case that surrounds the new rule is pretty straightforward. A guy was arrested for a crime (not a DUI), read his Miranda, and remained silent. And then he remained silent some more. Except the cops didn’t go away. They just kept on asking questions, talking about the case, and kept on going, until he finally spoke, three hours later.
When asked, the cops simply said, “he never told us he wanted to remain silent, so we just kept on asking questions.” It never occurred to the cops that his silence was in fact an overt act that he didn’t want to talk.
When he was convicted of his charges, he appealed, arguing that his statements should have been thrown out, since he invoked his right to silence by remaining silent. The Supreme Court disagreed, and now, if you want to remain silent, you have to speak up and say so.
That’s just another thing I, as a DUI lawyer, have to tell people. It’s no longer enough to just be silent. You have to express your silence!
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