Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/12/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Austin, Things you say can be used against you in many circumstances. Miranda, like many areas of the law, is riddled with exceptions and is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. For Miranda to come into play (generally) the subject must be a suspect, be detained, and the subject's statements must be in response to law enforcement questioning (all three of these conditions are subject to varying interpretations). So, for instance, if you are free to leave or if you are making a spontaneous statement that is not in response to questioning, Miranda will not constitute a bar to the admission of any statements made. Even if the circumstances do require Miranda, a statement obtained in violation of Miranda can still be admitted to impeach a contradictory statement made in later testimony by the defendant. In fact, law enforcement often intentionally ignore Miranda warnings on the theory that obtaining statements effectively prevents the defendant from testifying to anything else at trial. In response to your question about whether you can simply walk away from a police officer who does not suspect you of doing anything, the answer is probably yes in a technically legal sense. Would I recommend doing so, no. Too often, encounters between citizens and the police come down to whose version of the encounter is believed, the officer's or the citizen's. We probably don't need to go very far to realize who usually prevails. Bryan - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html