In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has re-interpreted the Miranda warning. The court decided defendants must directly invoke their right to remain silent.
The previous interpretation of the Miranda rights was called into question after Berghuis v. Thompkins, a shooting in Jan. 2000. The defendant, Thompkins, claimed he had invoked his Miranda rights by remaining silent during questioning, but the police continued to interrogate him until he confessed to the shooting.
Thompkins’ conviction was overturned on appeal stating the police had ignored his silent invocation of his Miranda rights. The Supreme Court denied the appeal June 2010 and determined defendants must explicitly invoke their Miranda rights.
UTD Police Chief Larry Zacharias said he has always made sure that both the police and suspects are clear on whether or not the right to remain silent has been invoked, which sometimes requires documentation.
“No answer doesn’t necessarily mean that someone has invoked their Fifth Amendment right,” Zacharias said. “The person may not have understood the question.”
Criminal defense attorney and Innocence Project of Texas case coordinator Clay Graham said this ruling exposes the variety of ways a person can be Mirandized between jurisdictions.
“There is no uniform way to perform an interrogation,” Graham said. “You can be arrested and not be Mirandized for an hour or even longer. Police are able to get around it by saying that you’re being detained rather than arrested up until you’re read you rights.”
Political science senior James Mulvey said he finds the new ruling odd and worries it could turn into an abuse of police power.
“Most people who have been detained won’t have the education to know you have to verbally invoke your Miranda rights,” Mulvey said. “I think it can lead to police using someone’s ignorance of the law to coerce them into continuing to talk.”
Anthony Champagne, professor and director of the pre-law program at UTD said he doesn’t expect the changes to have a great impact on the way the Miranda warnings will be handled in the future.
“People who want to remain silent are going to do so whether they say so or not,” Champagne said.