Thursday, November 21, 2013

[uwmmerlm] Disincentivizing the public safety exception to Miranda

Let evidence obtained invoking the "public safety" exception to Miranda be inadmissible in court.  This will require prosecutors to consider whether public safety is truly a concern or a merely sham to avoid Mirandizing.

Note well that even after Miranda rights have been read and invoked, the prosecutor still has very powerful tools to encourage a suspect to cooperate: drop or reduce charges.  However, this might be politically unpalatable.

Inspired by the Boston Marathon bombings.  But would you vote to reelect an Attorney General who drops the murder charges against Tsarnaev in exchange for information about whether there were additional bombs set to go off?  If not, then you the citizen are to blame for the erosion of civil liberties brought on by the abuse of the public safety exception.

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