http://blog.lawinfo.com/2010/06/01/u-s-supreme-court-weakens-miranda-warning/Here's the case. It's huge. If a suspect is read his Miranda rights, all the cops have to do is keep on questioning the guy (in this case, for almost three hours) and if he cracks once, they can use his words against him.
This was the usual 5-4 split with Alito, Scalia, Roberts and that fucking moron who has no place at all on the Supreme Court bench, being joined as usual by the "moderate conservative" Kennedy to further erode the civil rights of America.
In order to convict this one guy, who was obviously guilty, the "conservatives" on the bench have handed the cops a tool which enables them to third-degree or browbeat the dumbest suspects until they confess. Smarter crooks will know enough to say nothing but "I refuse to discuss this matter with you until I have consulted a lawyer," in answer to every question, while the real dumb schmucks will be too scared of mistakes to say anything, so the police will continue to fire questions at them for three, six, twelve or as many hours as it takes till they're caught in one moment of weakness and blurt out something better (in their case) left unsaid.
This is like TELLING the cops, give your suspect the third degree even if he doesn't want to talk to you. Push the limits of the envelope, keep up the pressure, don't let
Miranda stop you and eventually some of these bastards will confess. Well, of course, some of "the bastards" will confess, but so will some of the dumb confused weak-minded but innocent schmucks who fall into their net.
So the metaphorical safeguard of the criminal law "better to let nine guilty men go free than to punish one innocent" has just been whittled down somewhat by your conservative court, who apparently upheld the
Miranda warning's principle, but cut down somewhat on the scope of its application, denying its benefits to the dumbest section of the criminal trade; how relieving to know that they still believe that it's better to let five or six guilty men escape than to convict one innocent.
BOTTOM LINE: Expect more guilty men to be convicted, but also expect more innocent men to be convicted. And, IMHO, that really sucks.
