This Week’s Supreme Court Ruling You Didn’t Hear About… Two brothers were shot and killed in Houston, Texas… There were no witnesses. There was no direct evidence. All the police had to go on were a few shotgun casings found at the crime scene. The two victims threw a party the night before their murders. A party that Genovevo Salinas attended… A few days later, police officers invited Salinas down to the station for questioning. Officers didn’t charge Salinas with a crime, and they didn’t read him his Miranda rights. They simply wanted to chat. The conversation between the police and Salinas lasted for hours. In it, Salinas agreed to hand over his shotgun for testing. The police then asked him, “Will your shells match the ones we found at the scene of the murders?” What Salinas did next redefined one of your essential freedoms… Silence is Not Golden After openly talking with officers for hours, Salinas clammed up when he heard that question. He chose to use his right to remain silent, except for one major problem – he didn’t openly declare “I plead the fifth.” He simply didn’t speak. In trial, the officers and prosecutors both used that silence against Salinas. They described a change in his demeanor… that he became noticeably uncomfortable… that he stopped talking, bit his lip, shuffled his feet and tensed up. They were using Salinas’ right to not incriminate himself without a lawyer present against him. Obviously, Salinas charged that this was a clear violation of his Fifth Amendment right. But the Supreme Court disagreed. Your Rights Redefined To say it’s been a big week for the Supreme Court would be an understatement. The Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional, while Affirmative Action remains on shaky ground. But the Salinas ruling on Monday is an important clarification to one of our vital Amendment rights. And somehow it’s received virtually zero coverage. So please take note… The Supreme Court’s ruling set a precedent for what it means to “plead the fifth.” The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution gives you the right to remain silent and to not give up evidence that could potentially implicate you in a crime by the force of police or any other government official. In the infamous case of Miranda v. Arizona in 1966, the Supreme Court ruled that if you’re being held by police and can’t leave the station you have to be made aware of your right to remain silent. But Salinas wasn’t being held against his will. He went to the station voluntarily when police officers asked to chat. In that situation, officers didn’t need to read him his Miranda rights. The Court’s official ruling was that Salina’s silence could be used against him because of one key factor: When police ask potentially damaging questions, merely keeping your mouth shut is not the same as invoking your right to remain silent. In order for Salinas to use his Fifth Amendment right to not say anything that might be damaging, he had to explicitly say something that showed his silence was a declaration of that right. Since he didn’t, the Amendment couldn’t be used to protect him. And therefore, in all cases going forward, it can’t protect any of us. If police invite you downtown for questioning without reading you your Miranda rights – even if you’re just having a casual and voluntarily conversation with an officer – you have to literally plead out loud your Fifth Amendment right to silence, or you lose it the second any other words come out. And don’t think ignorance to the law will change anything… Justice Alito made it perfectly clear that unawareness of this law will not change the outcome of any ruling. So in plain English, take a lesson from Lois Lerner – if you want your right to remain silent you have to at least speak once to declare it. Your eyes on the Hill,
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 13:28:46 +0000
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