Word: warrens
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Inherent Compulsion. To dispel that coercive atmosphere, "adequate protective devices" must be employed. The Fifth Amendment privilege against selfincrimination is so fundamental to U.S. justice, said Warren, and an adequate reminder of the privilege can be so simply delivered to suspects, that there is no excuse for failing to give it. Congress and the individual states, he stressed, should be encouraged to "continue their laudable search for increasingly effective ways of protecting the rights of the individual while promoting efficient enforcement of our criminal laws." As the search goes on, though, the right to silence and the opportunity to exercise...
With that, Warren's majority opinion laid down three specific rules...
...Simple Expedient. Warren was careful to add that the decision was not intended to be "a constitutional straitjacket" on police; it did not mean, he said, that batteries of "station-house lawyers" should be on hand at all times to advise all suspects. What is intended, said Warren, is that as soon as police deprive anyone of freedom "in any significant way," he must be told of his rights. He must be made aware that "he is not in the presence of persons acting solely in his interest." If he chooses to remain silent, the Government must produce evidence against...
...privilege against selfincrimination, continued the Chief Justice, has ancient and honorable origins. And where it has been enforced, it has not hampered justice. Indeed, the very cases that were before the court, said Warren, testified to the general "overstatement of the need for confessions." Standard police investigations had turned up damning evidence against each defendant. "Miranda, Vignera and Westover were identified by eyewitnesses. Marked bills . from the bank robbed were found in Westover's car. Articles stolen from the victim as well as from several other robbery victims were found in Stewart's home...
Horrendous Results. Little of Warren's argument impressed Justice John Marshall Harlan, who was joined by Byron White, Potter Stewart and Tom Clark in dissent. Reddening with anger and pounding his fist on the desk before him, Harlan accused the majority of peddling "poor constitutional law," which promised "harmful consequences for the country at large." During 25 years, said Harlan, "the court has developed an elaborate, sophisticated and sensitive approach to admissibility of confessions." To replace that "totality of circumstances" doctrine with hard and fast rules based on the Fifth Amendment seemed to Harlan downright silly. Cops...