Court Opinion

ID: 9670435
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:20:32.892037+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:04.439726
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
dissenting.
The record here establishes that after the 18-year-old defendant had asked for a lawyer and declined to give a statement, the police continued to question him and later renewed the questioning in direct violation of the specific requirements of Miranda. Officer Klevemann admitted he told the defendant that he might be charged with something less than assault with intent to commit rape. The defendant testified that Lt. Stevens told the defendant that if he made a statement he would only be charged with assault and battery. That testimony was completely uncontradicted. On the following day when the defendant asked one of the same police officers if a statement then would help in his defense, the officer stated that he did not know, but proceeded to inquire if the defendant wanted to give a statement. After a recitation of the Miranda rights advisory form the *308critical statement was given at a time before any counsel had been appointed for the defendant and even before the preliminary hearing. Such a flagrant violation of the clear commandments of Miranda, coupled with the direct inducement of a promise of a reduced charge, ought not to go unchallenged.
The rote recitation of the Miranda rights advisory form by a police officer does not by itself constitute compliance with Miranda nor justify a violation of the clear commandment that where a defendant wishes to remain silent and wants an attorney, the interrogation must cease until an attorney is present. Neither does a repetition of the recitation of a rights advisory form on the next day cure all prior violations where the unwithdrawn and improper inducements still tainted the voluntary nature of any statement. The requirement that a defendant be advised of certain constitutional rights is only an attempt to insure that the basic constitutional protection granted by Miranda will be granted to every defendant. To give even tacit approval to the flagrant violation here is to treat the right to counsel and the right against self-incrimination as if they were constitutional ghosts to be exorcised by the incantation of a Miranda rights advisory form. A violation of such basic constitutional rights is not so easily cured. In this case it is ironic that in hard reality the critical statement the officers sought to obtain was unnecessary for the conviction.