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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   20882 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025

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Can you explain how it is a problem? It's not immediately clear to me, and it's apparently not immediately clear to most of the legal systems around the world, given that they do not subscribe to the extensive application of this doctrine.

Sure. I believe that the cops should not have near-infinite leeway to bend the rules and trod upon civil liberties to secure a conviction so long as they can convincingly make up a story about how they e.g. executed a warrantless wiretap in good faith.

Oh, we can continue applying the doctrine to illegal wiretaps just fine, that's not my problem with it. My problem is things like, if you fail to recite a specific magic incantation before your suspect confesses to the crime, you must disregard that confession.

So your objection is basically just to Miranda rights?

Probably not to the rights as such but to the court-invented magic incantation that replaces any actual inquiry whether and to what degree the rights were actually violated.

Yes, I mean to say "mirandizing".

Spontaneous confession is in fact an exception to the requirement to read the suspect their rights. The "magic incantation" is only required before custodial interrogation.

What this means in practice is that if talk to the perp, and you indicate or imply in any way whatsoever that he is expected to answer your questions, the conversation is now custodial interrogation, and if you don't mirandize the guy first, your case is fucked.

In fact, this isn't true; lots of cases (usually involving traffic stops, because that's where it comes up most) say a Miranda warning isn't required in these edge cases. But even if it were: easy solution, mirandize the guy first.

Have you ever had interrogation techniques used on you, e.g. Reid Technique? They work really well... innocent or guilty. And there's always the old "keep them in an interrogation room for hours on end and tell the they can go home once they've confessed" thing. The cops have all the advantages, having them give a warning in the beginning that you can, in fact, keep your mouth shut isn't unreasonable.

They just put people in prison regardless of the cops beating a confession out of them or tossing their place without a warrant or whatever, and no one has a problem with that. (or at least they better not)

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