Crime
Boston Bombing Suspect Is Not Being Read His Miranda Rights — Why and What Does That Mean?
Boston Marathon bombing suspect
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will not immediately be read his Miranda rights before
he is questioned by investigators, U.S. government officials confirmed
to multiple news networks.
Instead, the government is invoking the
“public safety” exception that can be triggered when authorities
believe there is a need to protect the public from immediate danger.
This means Tsarnaev can be questioned immediately without being
officially warned of his right to remain silent, his right to an
attorney, and the caution that anything he says can be used against him
in trial.
“There is a public safety exemption in
cases of national security and for acts of terrorism,” U.S. Attorney
Carmen Ortiz told reporters Friday night.
The FBI has a full explainer of the public safety exception, but here’s the takeaway [emphasis added]:
When police officers are
confronted by a concern for public safety, Miranda warnings need not be
provided prior to asking questions directed at neutralizing an imminent
threat, and voluntary statements made in response to such narrowly
tailored questions can be admitted at trial. Once the questions turn from those designed to resolve the concern for safety
to questions designed solely to elicit incriminating statements, the
questioning falls outside the scope of the exception and within the
traditional rules of Miranda.end quote from:
Boston Bombing Suspect Is Not Being Read His Miranda Rights — Why and What Does That Mean?
The problem is the wounded suspect IS a naturalized (on September 11th 2012) U.S. citizen. So, this is very problematic for the legal system because he is a citizen. You could see all charges against him being thrown out in a court of law by not reading him his Miranda rights.
The only other way would be to try him as an enemy combatant and this doesn't work very well when dealing with U.S. Citizens unless you want to screw it up and to screw up the rights of all U.S. Citizens living in the U.S. and around the world.
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