When and How to Invoke Your Right to Silence
Want to remain silent when questioned by the cops? Now you might have to say so.
The new Supreme Court decision raises weighty questions, such as whether it’s reasonable to place the onus of asserting constitutional rights on everyday people, most of whom have never cracked the spine of a criminal procedure or constitutional law book. The more practical question is what, exactly, an out-of-custody person must say to inquisitive police officers in order to claim the right to silence. To be safe, they should make clear that they are invoking their Fifth Amendment right to silence and have nothing further to say. That way their subsequent failure to answer any questions cannot be mentioned at trial.
2 comments:
As a start why not just get your own, personal Miranda card:
When in danger or in doubt, ....real aloud:
I have the right to remain silent;
Anything I say after I finish reading this card can be used against me in a court of law, or in every kind of proceeding or investigation of any kind;
I have a right to council or other representation of my choice, and I decline further discussion.
This isn't all that new. SCOTUS, right after Sotomayor was seated, decided that simply exercising the right to remain silent was not declarative and that a person actually had to openly declare intent to exercise the fifth.
“Before petitioner could rely on the privilege against self-incrimination, he was required to invoke it,” Sam Alito writes and this too - “The Fifth Amendment guarantees that no one may be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself; it does not establish an unqualified right to remain silent"
That from a Texas based case in 2013.
Liberal or conservative, they are he same once robed. Their purpose is to erode rights of man and empower government further.
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