Court Opinion

ID: 9708968
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:36:47.687774+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:45.019262
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. Our rules regarding juvenile confessions were designed to protect the youthful accused from the added pressures that youth might cause during police interrogation, (i. e. to assure that any confession given was voluntary), and to assure that a juvenile’s lack of intellectual and emotional maturity would not cause an unknowing or unintelligent waiver of constitutional rights.
In the instant case, appellant chose to waive his constitutional right to remain silent when he began speaking to police detectives at Isaly’s on March 24th. In the absence of adult guidance, that purported waiver cannot be said to have been knowing and intelligent.
*256Additionally, when appellant spoke to police on March 24th, he did so in the belief that his statement of March 15th could be used against him. One in that position does not know that he is saying something new. The statement should therefore be suppressed.
ROBERTS, J., joins in this dissent.