On Apr 22, 2013, at 1:54 AM, Chuck Grimes wrote:
> I couldn't find an explicit story, but I assume this:
>
> http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/21/178254784/miranda-rights-and-tsarnaev-ashcroft-says-u-s-move-is-the-right-one
>
> No Miranda. Hmm. This may turn out to be a big mistake, or a big
> victory for the Reich. If they can use this case as a precedent,
> they can pretty much annul most civil rights for anybody charged
> under terrorism as a special universe where there are no
> laws...Where is the public safety exception for a guy with near
> critical injuries in a hospital who can't speak (intubated?),
> chained to his bed, and is no doubt under 24/7 armed guards? His
> mere existance is an existential threat to greatest military power
> on the planet. I am sure...
In itself the concern about Miranda is a red herring--it applies not to whether he can be questioned but whether the "fruits" (admissions and consequent physical evidence) of the questioning can be introduced in evidence at his trial. He still has those rights and can assert them on his own, whether or not the police have read him a formula. In any event, assuming physical recovery (unlikely!), the evidence of his guilt on capital murder charges seems strong enough that no confession would be needed. Indeed, if information is sought the formal Miranda procedure is far more likely to elicit cooperation. The Miranda Red Herring matters because it is used for something entirely different--the pressure to declare him an "Enemy Combatant," the Bush- invented label that would indeed strip him of all rights, including the right not to be tortured to death!
“The law is like a spider’s web; the small are caught and the great tear it up.”
Solon