Court Opinion

ID: 9426653
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:18:35.881792+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:02.206532
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stevens,
dissenting.
In my opinion the issues presented by this case are too important to be decided summarily. Of particular impor*500tan.ce is the fact that the respondent was on parole at the time of his interrogation in the police station. This fact lends support to inconsistent conclusions.
On the one hand, the State surely has greater power to question a parolee about his activities than to question someone else. Moreover, as a practical matter, it seems unlikely that a Miranda warning would have much effect on a parolee’s choice between silence and responding to police interrogation. Arguably, therefore, Miranda warnings are entirely inappropriate in the parole context.
On the other hand, a parolee is technically in legal custody continuously until his sentence has been served. Therefore, if a formalistic analysis of the custody question is to determine when the Miranda warning is necessary, a parolee should always be warned. Moreover, Miranda teaches that even if a suspect is not in custody, warnings are necessary if he is “otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way.” If a parolee being questioned in a police station is not described by that language, today’s decision qualifies that part of Miranda to some extent. I believe we would have a better understanding of the extent of that qualification, and therefore of the situations in which warnings must be given to a suspect who is not technically in custody, if we had the benefit of full argument and plenary consideration.
I therefore respectfully dissent from the Court’s summary disposition.