Newspaper Article Writing Exercise: Miranda v Arizona

Two weeks from now, your right to remain silent is not as secure as it once was.  This week in a 5-4 decision the U.S. Supreme Court made slight yet far reaching changes to the television popularized Miranda Rights.

Established after the 1966 monumental decision in the case Miranda v Arizona.  The original ruling emerged after a 1964 police questioning of Ernesto Miranda in relation to a kidnapping and rape in Phoenix, in which Miranda was not advised of his right to an attorney.  After the Court ruled that his rights were violated the mantra now read by police officers everywhere to criminal suspects bears his name.

The Miranda rights now read, "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 speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense."

Tuesday, the Court modified your Miranda rights by saying that police no longer have to inform you that your attorney can be present during questioning, that in order to invoke your Miranda Rights you must verbally state that you wish to remain silent, and that the police have up to 14 days to re-question you without again advising you of your rights.

The minority opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor states the majority ruling created a kind of paradox.  She writes, “a suspect who wishes to guard his right to remain silent, must, counterintuitively, speak.”

While Justice Anthony M. Kennedy writing for the majority stated that while the new ruling may undercut the language of the Miranda Rights that the ruling now puts the burden on the suspect to invoke his rights and not on the police officers doing the questioning to ensure that the suspect has invoked them.

Critics say the new ruling will be confusing to suspects especially in determining whether the 14 day re-questioning restriction is still in place or not and that the will gain more confessions from those who truly wished to remain silent.