Miranda rights

The Miranda warning, also referred to as the Miranda rights, is a warning required by the U.S. Supreme Court, which sets social policy to a much larger degree than in any other country. The warning informs those arrested that they have the right to an attorney, and that one will be appointed for them if they cannot afford one. It also informs those arrested of their most basic right, the right to remain silent.

The warning must be given by the police or other arresting agency to persons who have been arrested. It is well-known because it is found in many motion pictures: it is brief and dramatic, and reassures viewers that their government is benign, save for police overreaching which the warning seems to check. In practice the warning, while certainly beneficial, means less than it seems to.

• Government funding for attorneys for the indigent or near-indigent is often inadequate, sometimes ludicrously inadequate. The pay given to participating attorneys is sometimes so low that sometimes only incompetent attorneys, with no other source of clients, will accept it.
• In some jurisdictions attorneys are assigned cases with no pay at all, as a public duty the state requires of them. This duty is assigned at random, so the accused may be assigned an attorney whose specialty is real estate or taxes, who has never represented a criminal client and knows very little about cruminal law. Criminal law is a highly complex and constantly changing area of the law, requiring expertise.
• In those jurisdictions (mostly Democratic) in which compensation is marginally adequate and have a Public Defenders office, there is no funding for investigation, expert witnesses, or other types of preparation for a trial. The attorneys usually assist defendents with basic rights and procedure, and can negotiate on the client's behalf with prosecutors and judges. Prosecutors and judges rarely will negotiate directly with a suspect. Even when there are attorneys with adequate compensation, there are frequently not enough of them, so case loads can be very high, meaning the time available to assist each client may be as low as ten minutes. These attorneys see as their primary role is to negotiate a "plea bargain", by far the most common outcome of criminal

in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) before they are interrogated to preserve the admissibility of their statements against them in criminal proceedings.

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?”

The Miranda warning is part of a preventive criminal procedure rule that law enforcement are required to administer to protect an individual who is in custody and subject to direct questioning or its functional equivalent from a violation of his or her Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination. In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the Supreme Court held that the admission of an elicited incriminating statement by a suspect not informed of these rights violates the Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, through the incorporation of these rights into state law.[Note 1] Thus, if law enforcement officials decline to offer a Miranda warning to an individual in their custody, they may interrogate that person and act upon the knowledge gained, but may not use that person's statements as evidence against him or her in a criminal trial.[1]

In Berghuis v. Thompkins (2010), the Supreme Court held that unless a suspect expressly states that he or she is invoking this right, subsequent voluntary statements made to an officer can be used against them in court, and police can continue to interact with (or question) the alleged criminal.[...]

Remember--when a person (meaning you) agrees voluntarily to be "interviewed" by the police, the police are not required to advise the person that he has "the right to remain silent"!

DO NOT TALK TO THE POLICE!

See also

BoyLover mistakes leading to arrest and conviction‎‎

External links

• Continue reading at Wikipedia about your Miranda rights at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_warning

• http://www.mirandawarning.org/whatareyourmirandarights.html You have the right to remain silent!