Miranda Update #13 – “Miranda and Civil Liability”

FROM THE CLASSROOM
By: Ray Hill, Professor Emeritus, Santa Rosa JC

“Its ‘402’ time, officer. Who wins, you or defense counsel”  Note: 402(b) E.C. – A pre-trial court hearing to determine the admissibility of an admission or confession.

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This is the thirteenth in a series of mini-articles covering basic Miranda and Confession Law. This review is equally applicable to detectives and those generalists who are assigned to investigate their own cases.

There is no civil liability exposure for a Miranda violation, standing alone.  Here are some examples:

Suspects who are not given their Miranda rights cannot sue under the Title 43 – Section 1983 civil rights statute. Miranda is a “prophylactic rule” prohibiting the use of unwarned statements as evidence in court. The Miranda admonition protects a constitutional right, but the warning itself is not a right in itself that would bring about a lawsuit. “We see no justification for expanding Miranda to confer a right to sue” (Vega v. Tekoh (2022) 142 S. Ct. 2095).

Detectives investigating a double homicide ignored the defendant’s requests for counsel and pursued an unsuccessful line of questioning in an attempt to develop investigative leads. Simply ignoring an invocation of Miranda rights doesn’t violate the due process clause of the ....

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