Adherence to Miranda Ruling
Re your April 6 editorial regarding the Miranda issue: One particular comment is not accurate, about “an open but nasty secret in some police departments: officers who deliberately ignore their own Miranda warnings by continuing to interrogate suspects after they have asked for a lawyer.”
A Miranda warning is not required, for an adult, unless an officer is in the process of eliciting a statement for prosecution. Nothing says an officer cannot talk to a suspect. Nothing says an officer has to stop talking to a suspect after Miranda. For you to say officers ignore Miranda is absolutely wrong.
To use the words of an arrestee or a suspect to impeach his or her testimony is not an issue of self-incrimination. A conviction in and of itself cannot, nor should it, be sustained with improperly obtained statements. But to help in proving perjury, to help in bringing the truth of the matter forward, the technique of talking to a suspect should not be viewed, as you suggest, as medieval torture. It is good, acceptable police work. This issue is surely an emotional one, but one that is being properly overseen by our magistrates. We do not need to handcuff our officers from doing their job.
GREGORY C. CALDWELL
Downey Chief of Police
* As appellate counsel to Airrique Peevy, whose appeal is now pending before the California Supreme Court, I would like to express my appreciation for the unequivocal position you took in urging the court to rectify the current trend in police disregard and circumvention of the Miranda rule.
The policy and practice of deliberate disregard of a suspect’s invocation of Miranda rights is known, among law enforcement circles, as “outside Miranda” interrogation. Proponents argue U.S. Supreme Court precedent approves of such practices and methods in the interest of discovering truth at trial. This contention, in our view, is a self-serving distortion of the law. It is doubtful the U.S. Supreme Court would approve of the police deliberately disregarding its Miranda pronouncements.
ALEMAYEHU G. MARIAM
San Bernardino
