Word: miranda
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Thirty-four years after they were established by an Earl Warren Supreme Court ruling, the Miranda warnings are again being debated by the nation's highest judicial body. The warnings, described by Justice Stephen G. Breyer as a "hallmark of American justice," provide essential safeguards for people against the power of the police. The ruling, which requires that police inform arrested individuals of their rights, is being challenged on the basis of an obscure section of a 1968 crime bill that was ignored until a surprising ruling earlier this year. A Virginia bank robbery suspect made incriminating statements before...
...Miranda warnings have come to embody the rule of law that distinguishes America from so many other nations, where coercion of confessions is commonplace. They provide assurance that only truly voluntary confessions, made after individuals knowingly waive their rights, can be admissible in court. The Miranda ruling unequivocally ensures that all suspects are aware of their right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution...
University of Utah Professor Paul Cassell, presenting the arguments against Miranda, contends that the 1968 federal law supersedes the Supreme Court decision. The 1968 law, a Congressional reaction to outrage over the first Miranda decision, allows "voluntary" confessions to be used in court even if suspects had not been read their Miranda rights. The original ruling, he argues, was a "provisional, interim judgment" to allow Congress to consider other appropriate alternatives. However, even judges who have been critical of Miranda find that argument difficult to accept. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a conservative who has expressed distaste for the ruling...
...George F. Pierce has been patrolling since 1970, when Harvard student’s pockets were made of polyester and stuffed with disco passes. Along with his folded domestic abuse forms and translations of the Miranda rights, Pierce’s pockets are home to handcuff keys and a pair of gloves, just in case a person he handles “might not be too clean...
...hand-crafted its own profiling policy. Students who exhibit certain risky behaviors--cursing, mood swings, writing about "the dark side of life"--can face expulsion or worse. In December, teachers in Granite City found a note by a student promising to "settle some scores." He was read his Miranda warning, arrested by the city police and suspended for 10 days. In the meantime, teachers investigating the matter found that the note was only the concoction, as superintendent Steve Balen puts it, "of a goofy freshman having...