Opinion ID: 2195033
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Denial of access to mother

Text: The repeated references in the majority opinion to the number of times Burrell asked to speak to his mother implies that police should have honored that request. But we have held that a juvenile does not have a right to interrupt interrogation to speak to a parent and that interrogation must cease only when a juvenile unambiguously invokes the right to speak with counsel or the right to remain silent. See, e.g., State v. Jones, 566 N.W.2d 317, 323-24 (Minn.1997). Although Burrell asked to speak to his mother three times before the Miranda warning was given, he appears to have done so in the context of wishing to notify her of his whereabouts. He did not say that he wanted to speak to her about his right to counsel or to remain silent, and he did not condition his waiver of his Miranda rights on consultation with his mother. Burrell's requests cannot reasonably be interpreted as a request to consult with counsel or to remain silent, neither of which were ever mentioned. These requests to talk to his mother can be considered as one factor in a totality of the circumstances analysis, but under the circumstances of this record and the way in which the requests were made, I would not give them significant weight. And I would give no weight to the additional requests that Burrell made after he waived his Miranda rights, particularly those that came after police had begun interviewing Burrell's mother separately.