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[averygoodun42]

So the Supreme court said you need to speak to stay silent. I.e., arrestees need to vocally invoke their Miranda right to stay silent.

This strikes me as... a bad thing. It could also be good, if used properly, but that's assuming there's no corruption in the police department and that there's education among the alleged criminals on their need to actually invoke their rights.

However, if an investigator is legally compelled (again, assuming s/he's not bending the rules) to back off and not interrogate a suspect because the suspect has said they aren't speaking, that could be an improvement of the suspects' rights.

*shrugs* That's my uneducated layperson's take on a blurb, anyway.


So, the weather channel site is still saying it's smoky outside. Poor Babe. I think we'll have to go to the mall later today, when I'm feeling a little more human, so he can run around in the mall-gassed air. Um... Well, at least mall gas only sucks out the soul; it doesn't inflame the lungs while that happens.

There's still ice cream in the house tempting me. I was not strong yesterday, though I did manage to hold out until after dinner, and I didn't get any of my own. Just four bites of Geoff's. That's being pretty good, right?

Knowing it isn't going to cure me makes it way, way harder to stay away. It makes it deprivation, even though I know I really do feel better when I do stay away. Just not better enough.

However, I have resumed my mega-veggie diet and suspect that I will be feeling better soon. Especially if I can get off the chicken, too. (Chicken doesn't agree with me, though it's Geoff's fav.)(Though the current digestive upset also coincides with the resumption of ashwaghanda, which I suspect I may be sensitive to...)


Maybe related, last night I dreamed an odd mix of The Black Cauldron, Sword in the Stone and sarahtales's Demon Lexicon universe. There was food, fire, temptation and cross-dressing as disguise. And wizards and demons, of course. It was really cool, and I'd like to write it out as a complete story, but it really would infringe on so many copyrights that it's not worth it. *shrug* Not that I'm really up for writing anyway.


And now I need to go tune Babe's ukulele and my guitar. Hopefully my guitar isn't too far out of tune... Tuning makes me queasy. *iz not a musician*

Comments

[cecelle.livejournal.com]

The way I saw that case, once he decided to speak (implicating himself in the murder) after being read his rights, that was his problem, not the police's.

I didn't even know that the police had to cut off an interrogation after they read you your rights if you stated you were going to stay silent. I always interpreted that warning as saying that when the police asks you questions, you have the right not to answer, and that's it.

I never in my life would have interpreted the Miranda warning as saying that if you *didn't* keep your trap shut after being read your rights, the police could somehow not use what you said.

So I think that clarification is a good thing, and knowing that you *can* can stop an interrogation actually makes the law clearer.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

I agree that in that case, I think the guy was stupid and deserved the sentence because he didn't keep his trap shut. I mean, honestly! As you say, the Miranda rights are a warning that anything you say (at any point) can and WILL be used against you.

This clarification will make cops' jobs more difficult, but at the same time, I like the idea of interrogations being cut short.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

I intensely dislike this stretching of the Miranda rights; I might be okay with it if they still inform a person that they have the right to remain silent and tells them they have to invoke it, but if they just don't mention that detail the potential for abuse is enormous, and goes against the original purpose of the Miranda right to begin with. This guy was a twerp, sure, but still, not a good precedent...