One of the crucial things about being a U.S. citizen is knowing and comprehending your constitutional rights and ensuring law enforcement respects them. One of these rights is your Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, also called the Miranda warning or rights. Unfortunately, the police do not always respect citizens' Miranda rights, which might be a way out of a criminal charge. If a police officer has violated your Miranda warning, you want to talk to a lawyer immediately. This blog guides you through everything you should know about Miranda rights, including when to know if the police have violated them.

What They Are

Many people likely know about Miranda rights from action movies and TV shows but might not precisely understand what they mean. Miranda rights apply to every U.S. citizen. They are born from the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution. These rights do the following:

  • The Fifth Amendment protects you from double jeopardy or facing prosecution twice for the same offense.
  • Guarantee your right to a grand jury.
  • Safeguard you from uttering incriminating statements or words against yourself.
  • Give you the right to a lawyer.

Miranda rights safeguard you when interacting with the police and navigating the legal system in Texas and any other state. The United States Supreme Court upheld these rights in the Miranda vs. Arizona case 1966.

A police officer must read you the formal Miranda rights before taking you into custody for questioning. The act of reading these rights is called a Miranda warning. That is because the officer is warning or advising you about your constitutional right to:

  • Stay silent, as the authorities could use whatever you say against you before court
  • An attorney, even when you are unable to pay for one

Generally, Miranda rights read: You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in court. You have the right to a lawyer. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided.

If ever you have heard the phrase “I plead the fifth,” then it refers to Miranda warning. If you plead the Fifth Amendment, it fundamentally means you have invoked your right not to say anything and remain silent. You can plead the Fifth from the first time you interact with the police through to and after official interrogation. For example, if an officer pulls you over for DWI, you can invoke your right not to say anything from the time they ask whether you have been drinking before they even read you your Miranda warning.

Miranda rights are there to ensure impartial legal protection. Violating them may be a good enough reason for the court to suppress incriminating evidence and statements against you, provided the evidence was acquired from the alleged violation. The motion to exclude or suppress evidence after a Miranda warning violation can help your defense. Having the D.A. dismissing your charges can be due to the findings that the police violated your Miranda warning.

In Texas, Miranda rights are governed under state and federal law. Even though these rights apply countrywide, courts in Texas have come up with specific procedures and interpretations that impact their application. These rights apply to any supposed crime in Texas, including:

  • Violent crimes
  • Theft offenses
  • Drug crimes
  • Sex crimes
  • Organized crimes
  • Weapon charges
  • Domestic violence offenses
  • White-collar violations
  • Assault offenses
  • Hate crimes
  • Property crimes

When They Apply

The Miranda warning is often misconstrued. Among the most popular beliefs is that the warning applies to all police interactions. However, that is not the case. The Miranda warning only applies to specific scenarios. Two cases where the Miranda warning applies are:

  • Interrogation. This refers to questioning or acts by law enforcement likely to derive an incriminating answer. This includes informal and formal questions.
  • Custodial interrogation. Law enforcement must read Miranda rights to a suspect when they have taken them into custody and subjected them to formal interrogation. This may be after an official arrest or when the suspect feels they are not free to go.

What They Must Constitute

It is worth repeating that Miranda warning aims to safeguard you from incriminating yourself during police questioning. It entitles you to not answer questions or wait until your lawyer is present. If you ever find yourself in a scenario where Miranda warning is necessary, you want to understand how to exercise them. In Texas, Miranda rights are generally divided into four sections: 

  • Remaining silent. If a police officer has taken you into custody, you are entitled to stay silent. You can state you are pleading the Fifth or invoking your Fifth Amendment right to keep quiet. Doing so minimizes the chances of mentioning things the police can use against you. The authorities cannot use your remaining silence against you during court proceedings. It also does not imply the prosecution will dismiss your charges.
  • The police can use whatever you say against you in court. You may opt to answer the officer’s questions anyway and, in the process, incriminate yourself. In that case, anything you would have told them is fair play for them to use against you in court.
  • Request a lawyer. Per the Sixth Amendment, everyone has the constitutional right to a lawyer. If no lawyer is present at that point of questioning, mention that you invoke your legal right to a lawyer. The officers must cease questioning you once you request a lawyer. They can only resume their interrogation once your lawyer arrives.
  • Appointment of an attorney. The court will appoint one if you lack the money to pay for a lawyer. In that case, you can request a lawyer without any charges.

Do Not Waive Your Miranda Warning

The officers might request you to sign a form waiving your Miranda warning. Understand that you can waive your rights. However, you should not waive them unless you completely understand what that means and have voluntarily chosen to append your signature. Once you waive your rights, the police will question you even without your lawyer present.

When Miranda Rights Are Not Necessary

Even though Miranda rights exist to protect citizens, there are various exceptions to reading them.

Texas police officers need not read you your Miranda warning if they have not arrested you yet. They also need not read them when questioning you right after stopping you due to reasonable suspicion. However, by law, a police officer must read you the Miranda rights before they take you into custody for official questioning. Other situations where law enforcement need not read you the Miranda warning are when the officer is:

  • Questioning you about public safety and for public safety reasons. If the police have received a hint of a public safety threat, they need not read Miranda rights. This is permissible to prevent more severe harm or damage to the public. However, their interrogation must be restricted to trying to solve the threat at hand.
  • Asking questions during standard police booking. Questions asked during routine bookings do not need a reading of Miranda rights. Examples are questions about your address, name, phone number, or birth date. These are merely administrative questions.
  • Pulling you over for violating traffic rules. Say an officer notices you swerving and pulls you over. Here, they need not read you your Miranda rights before asking whether you are intoxicated. That said, if you respond that you are intoxicated and admit to drunk driving, the officer can use this statement against you despite not reading the Miranda warning before questioning you.
  • Spontaneous statements. If you make a statement without police questioning, it might be admissible in court.
  • Using a police informant to obtain information from you when you are incarcerated. When you are already in jail, and an officer wants to use an informant to elicit information, they need not read you your Miranda rights.
  • Questioning you in any way or for whatever purpose if you are not in custody

Situations Where Violating Miranda Rights Will Not Lead to Exclusion or Suppression of Evidence

As mentioned, when an officer violates Miranda rights, any information they obtain after that violation can generally be excluded or suppressed as evidence. However, there are a few critical exceptions. These are:

  • Inevitable discovery. When an officer interrogates a suspect, though illegally, and discovers tangible evidence, the evidence might still be admitted in court if it had been discovered even without interrogating the suspect.
  • Tangible evidence. If an officer interrogates a suspect, even though illegally, and discovers tangible evidence, the evidence can usually be admissible in court.
  • Interrogation. When an officer questions a suspect, although illegally, and identifies them as a possible witness, the witness might be permitted to give their testimony during the trial.
  • Public safety. When an officer interrogates you for general public safety reasons and discovers evidence of a supposed crime, they can admit the evidence against the supposed offender.

What Happens When The Police Do Not Give Miranda Warning

If the police did not read your Miranda rights before questioning you and no valid waiver of this warning exists, any confessions or statements you made at the questioning are considered involuntary. Thus, the authorities cannot use them against you in court or otherwise. The same is true about the evidence gathered from those confessions or statements. In that case, statements, confessions, or evidence must be deemed inadmissible. This refers to the exclusionary rule. It prevents law enforcement from using unlawfully acquired evidence against an accused person.

Your lawyer can bring a motion to suppress if the court establishes that the police violated your Miranda rights. Should the judge grant the motion, the D.A. cannot admit those statements or confessions as evidence. However, we have different exceptions. For example, should the D.A. prove the statement or confession was voluntary, or you gave it before you were in custody, the judge might allow it as evidence.

Your attorney can assert the Miranda rights violation defense to fight your driving while intoxicated case or obtain a not-guilty verdict on your other charges.

Determining Whether The Police Violated Your Miranda Rights

You are always entitled to an attorney and against forced self-incrimination. Miranda rights necessitate that the police inform you about these rights if they ever take you in custody and subject you to formal interrogation.

If a police officer took you in their custody and questioned you about illegal activity without Mirandizing you, any evidence you provide during the questioning might be inadmissible in court. Knowing the meaning of these terms can assist you in understanding whether the police violated your Miranda warning.

  • Custody. To be in custody is when the police have created a situation where any reasonable party would believe their freedom of movement has been significantly restricted. For example, if a police officer held you involuntarily, they would likely have taken you into custody. A police officer placing you in the back of a police vehicle, for example, generally means they have taken you into their custody.
  • Subject to interrogation. This is when a law enforcement officer asks questions specifically meant to derive incriminating information. For example, a police officer asking why you committed a crime or what you did with the allegedly stolen items are questions suggesting you are under formal interrogation.

Note that your statements might still be detrimental to your case even when you successfully prove a Miranda rights violation and manage to exclude the evidence resulting from the violation. During the trial, the prosecution can use incriminating statements to impeach your credibility. That means they can use your statements to prove you lied or are not telling the whole truth when you take the stand.

Miranda Rights and Non-Citizens

Many often ask whether the Miranda warning applies only to United States citizens. The answer to this question is no. Miranda warning applies to immigrants, undocumented ones included, as it applies to United States citizens. However, the consequences of Miranda warning violations can be severe for immigrants. That is because any statement could result in them ending up in immigration courts, too.

At the same time, to ensure the Miranda warning is not waived or violated due to a language barrier, Texas law necessitates that the Miranda warning be read in a language the suspect comprehends.

Miranda Warning for Juveniles

In Texas, the Miranda warning works the same way for suspected juvenile delinquents as it does for adult suspects. However, juveniles have further protections. This includes two primary aspects:

  • Statements. Whenever dealing with juvenile offenders, courts review the voluntariness of waivers more closely than with adult offenders. They consider factors such as intelligence and age to ascertain that the juveniles signed the waivers voluntarily.
  • Parental notification. Whenever a police officer takes a juvenile into custody, they must notify their guardian or parent. Even though the presence of the parents or guardians is unnecessary during interrogation, it is still advisable to have them there. It is also advisable for the suspected young offenders to have legal counsel during interrogation.

Latest Developments In Texas

Miranda's warning has been discussed and debated consistently. The latest law changes in Texas affect the Miranda warning in the following ways:

  • Body cameras. Authorities increasingly use body cameras in Texas. The recorded footage can assist the court in determining if the police properly notified suspects about their Miranda rights. This could be advantageous for both the prosecution and defense.
  • Recording interrogations and interviews. Some jurisdictions in Texas have implemented compulsory electronic recording of all custodial interrogations. Like body cameras, electronic recordings give explicit evidence. This might expand in the coming days and affect how the Miranda warning is enforced statewide.

What to Do When The Police Violate Your Miranda Warning

When you trust that the police violated your Miranda warning, there are specific things you must do immediately. The first thing you must do is consult a skilled criminal defense lawyer who can assess and establish whether the police indeed violated your rights. This can help the attorney file a motion to suppress or exclude any statement obtained during the unlawful interrogation.

Also, you ensure you document the violation as best as you can. Record the place and time of the violation and what the police said. The documentation will assist your lawyer in mounting a defense. It will also enable your lawyer to contest the obtained evidence before the court, possibly weakening the prosecutor’s case.

Contact a Competent Criminal Defense Attorney Near Me

If the police have arrested you and you face criminal charges, invoke your Miranda rights and do not say a word until you have spoken with a lawyer. Being aware of the rights the police do not want you to know, for example, the right to stay silent, can prevent you from incriminating yourself. However, it often is insufficient to make the D.A. drop your criminal charges. Consequently, you need not just to speak to any lawyer but a competent one.

We at Andrew Deegan Criminal Attorney at Law have highly knowledgeable criminal defense lawyers serving Fort Worth and the surrounding areas. For years, we have assisted suspects and defendants in navigating the Texas criminal justice system while mitigating the impacts of charges. We are ready to defend your rights aggressively, including Miranda rights, throughout the criminal process. Set up a free, confidential consultation now by calling 817-689-7002.