The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a person’s silence prior to receiving a Miranda warning can be used as evidence against him. The 5-4 ruling came in the case of Genovevo Salinas, who was convicted of murder in Texas in 1992. Prior to issuing Salinas a Miranda warning, police asked about a shotgun to which Salinas had access and Salinas declined to answer. Prosecutors used that silence as evidence. Salinas’ lawyers argued that his Fifth Amendment rights should have kept his silence from being used against him. Texas courts found that pre-Miranda silence is not constitutionally protected and today the Supreme Court agreed.
Prof. Mark Graber is recognized nationally as a leading scholar on constitutional law and a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. He is the author of Rethinking Abortion (Princeton University Press) and Transforming Free Speech (University of California Press). His most recent book is Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil (Cambridge University Press). Professor Graber is the author of scores of articles, including "Naked Land Transfers and American Constitutional Development", published in the Vanderbilt Law Review and “Resolving Political Questions into Judicial Questions: Tocqueville’s Aphorism Revisited", published by Constitutional Commentary.
Prof. Graber is available over the phone, in person (in Baltimore) or live from our Videolink studio.
See his bio here: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/faculty/profiles/faculty.html?facultynum=055
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