Thesis on "Miranda Warnings and Miranda-Based Law"

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[EXCERPT] . . . .

Fifth Amendment Miranda Issues

The Miranda Doctrine:

Under the landmark 1966 Miranda v. Arizona (348 U.S. 346) decisions, evidence procured by police authorities during interrogations of criminal suspects may not be admissible at trial unless the suspect was first advised of his Fifth Amendment constitutional rights against self-incrimination (Dershowitz, 2002; Friedman, 2005; Schmalleger, 2008). At a minimum, Miranda requires police to advise subjects under arrest that they have the right to remain silent, to refuse to answer questions without legal representation, and that competent legal counsel will be provided to them at no charge if they cannot afford an attorney to represent them (Dershowitz, 2002; Friedman, 2005; Schmalleger, 2008).

Under the Miranda doctrine, admissions, confessions, and other evidence procured in violation of the Miranda ruling must be excluded from introduction at trial. The exclusionary rule also applies to secondary evidence derived from any Miranda violations under the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine (Dershowitz, 2002; Schmalleger, 2008). Since Miranda, the Supreme Court has recognized several important exceptions to that doctrine, such as where sufficient evidence exists to establish that the same evidence obtained improperly would have inevitably been discovered through permissible means; where suspects provide spontaneous statements not in response to direct police questioning; and where police question subjects of investigative detention short of arrest (Schmalleger, 2008; Zalman, 2008)..

Custodial vs. Non-Custodial Interrogation:

In 1968, two years after Miranda, th

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e U.S. Supreme Court issued a related decision in Terry v. Ohio (392 U.S. 1) that firmly distinguished the concept of arrest and mere investigative detention (Schmalleger, 2008). Terry primarily concerned the issue of defining "search and seizure" in connection with the police practice of "frisking" subjects without probable cause to conduct a search in the context of Fourth Amendment constitutional protections. That decision also (in effect) allowed police to question subjects being temporarily detained but not arrested without providing Miranda rights and for evidence elicited thereby to avoid exclusion at trial (Schmalleger, 2008).

Subsequent Supreme Court decisions addressed the issue of reasonable investigative detention and unreasonable (unconstitutional) investigative detention, distinguishing them largely on the basis of the amount of time to which a person can reasonably be detained and questioned for investigative purposes without probable cause to arrest them or otherwise interfere with the person's right to leave (Dershowitz, 2002). Likewise, the Supreme Court has also limited the scope of what can be considered "investigative detention short of arrest," most recently in 2003, in Knapp v. Texas (123 S. Ct. 1843), and determined that the totality of circumstances rather than explicit statements such as "you are under arrest" are sufficient to trigger the requirement for Miranda warnings (Zalman, 2008).

In this case, the police interrogation of Fred does not violate the well-settled Miranda doctrine, mainly because (1) Fred was not under arrest; (2) he was not brought to the police station against his free will; (3) he was repeatedly reminded that he was at liberty to leave at any time; (4) he volunteered to be interviewed in the first place; and (5) he freely provided the information and ultimately confessed to the crime voluntarily. Fred's attorney may try to argue that once police advised Fred that they considered him a suspect and were searching his home, the circumstances of the interview changed enough to become a custodial interrogation.… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Miranda Warnings and Miranda-Based Law" Assignment:

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The Project 2 assignment is to write a Position Paper of 1000-1250 words with respect to the following:

Hunters discovered the body of a dead woman floating in an abandoned gravel pit pond. The county coroner ruled that the woman's death was a homicide. Her ex-husband, Fred Flintrock, who had read accounts in the local paper, was considered a suspect. He called the police department to inquire if the body in the pond might be the body of his ex-wife, Wilma. Police asked him to come to headquarters, purportedly to identify personal items they thought belonged to dead woman. In reality, police wanted to interrogate Fred Flintrock about the murder of his ex-wife.

Fred Flintrock drove his truck over to police headquarters and immediately identified the personal property as belonging to his former spouse. Fred stayed at the police headquarters for two hours while two police officers questioned him in a small interview room. The interrogation was thorough, but not overly intimidating. The officers openly tape-recorded the interrogation. At no time did the police officers inform Fred Flintrock of his Miranda rights. The officers repeatedly assured Flintrock that he was not under arrest and that he was free to terminate the questioning and leave the police station. Since the police had focused on Flintrock as the culprit, they told him that they were sure that he had killed the former Mrs. Wilma Flintrock.

In order to place some additional pressure on Fred Flintrock, police told him that other officers were conducting a search for evidence at his home and that police were going to search his pickup truck for evidence of a homicide. Police asked various questions that had the goal of getting Fred to confess to the homicide of his former wife. In the latter part of the interrogation, Flintrock admitted that he had indeed killed her and put her body in the gravel pit pond and hoped that her body stayed submerged. As promised, police allowed Fred to leave the police station and go about his business, although police did seize his pickup truck. Several hours later, after consulting with a prosecutor, police found Flintrock at the diner with his girlfriend, ***** Rumble. The police arrested him for Wilma*****s murder. Fred argued that the confession given at the police station should not be admitted against him because his rights under Miranda v. Arizona were violated because he was in custody during questioning.

Should police have offered the Miranda warnings to Fred Flintrock under these circumstances? Should the trial court rule that his confession was illegally obtained? Identify the factual issues and apply the legal concepts dictated by the Miranda warnings and Miranda-based case law. Be sure to arrive at a definite conclusion concerning whether the Miranda warnings were necessary to be given to Fred Flintrock.

Be sure to submit your project in one WORD document in APA format.

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[1] ”Miranda Warnings and Miranda-Based Law”, A1-TermPaper.com, 2009. [Online]. Available: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/fifth-amendment-miranda-issues/70622. [Accessed: 3-Jul-2024].

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1. Miranda Warnings and Miranda-Based Law. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/fifth-amendment-miranda-issues/70622. Published 2009. Accessed July 3, 2024.

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