I wasn't trying to write a comprehensive treatise about the exclusionary rule under Miranda. You're right that police don't have to Mirandize anyone they don't want to question, but your original post said they have to Mirandize EVERYONE they question and that is not true. Police can ask you whatever they want if you're not in custody. This is why witnesses don't have to be Mirandized, and it is also why police are able to ask preliminary questions without Mirandizing people they don't yet believe committed the crime. Even when police do believe this, they can keep asking questions without Mirands warnings if the suspect doesn't yet realize they suspect him and has no reason to believe police will hold him.
I also didn't say that being silent in response to a police question would be a crime. What I said was that it would be admissible against the suspect when he is put on trial for the crime being investigated.
More specifically, such silence can be used by the prosecution in its rebuttal case if the defendant testifies but was silent at a time before his arrest when an innocent person would normally be expected to speak.
Has this ever happened? Absolutely. There are several Supreme Court cases directly on point. See, e.g., Fletcher v. Weir, 455 U.S. 603, 607, 102 S. Ct. 1309, 71 L. Ed. 2d 490 (1982) ["In the absence of the sort of affirmative assurances embodied in the Miranda warnings, we do not believe that it violates due process of law for a State to permit cross-examination as to postarrest silence when a defendant chooses to take the stand.]. See also Jenkins v. Anderson, 447 U.S. 231, 238-239, 100 S.Ct. 2124, 65 L.Ed.2d 86 (1980) ["The petitioner also contends that use of prearrest silence to impeach his credibility denied him the fundamental fairness guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. We do not agree. Common law traditionally has allowed witnesses to be impeached by their previous failure to state a fact in circumstances in which that fact naturally would have been asserted. 3A J. Wigmore, Evidence § 1042, p. 1056 (Chadbourn rev. 1970)."] See also Justice Stevens' opinion in the Jenkins case, in which he explained that the privilege against compulsory self-incrimination only applies to those under an official compulsion to speak. Jenkins, supra, 447 U.S. at 241, 100 S.Ct. 2124 (Stevens, J., concurring).
My point about Martha Stewart wasn't that her case was exactly like the one the question originally posed. I was responding to your claim that any questions beyond basic identifying information that law enforcement asks without first giving a Miranda warning would be inadmissible. That simply isn't true. If the person isn't in custody they can ask whatever they want, and the lack of a Miranda warning would not keep the answers out of evidence.
I just got pulled over by the police after I saw a escort at a hotel. The police said that they saw me leave the hotel room and say that will arrest me as a john if i don't give information about the escort I just saw. What should have I really tell the pigs.
without speaking to your lawyer first.
(still not a lawyer)
Always, always, always refuse to incriminate yourself! Such a threat (arresting you as a john) has no teeth unless they were in the room with you, or the room was wired... in which case they would simply arrest you.
DOWNLOAD AND READ THIS:
http://www.aclu.org/police/gen/14527res20020304.html?Type=s
In witch city does this happend?
You all mist a very important detail. There is no law of coming out of a hotel room anywhere in the United States. Just state, is it against the law to leave a hotel room? They will then try to ask you more questions and even put an answer in your mouth. At that point simply state that you will not answer any questions without your lawyer present. At that point ask if you can leave or if you’re under arrest.
True it's not illegal to enter or leave a hotel. But the cops can be very persuasive-
we have video of you entering and leaving that'll be on the 10:00 news for your family to see if you don't help us...
That could make some otherwise law abiding citizens think twice
I had this very conversation with a provider and she said to me. Imagine how it might look to have an angry hooker/s show up at your doorstep after you give information or participate in a sting.
I am about to take the bar so take this for what it is worth but as an aspiring lawyer, this is the best my knowledge of the law of arrest/detention will ever be. Fact of the matter is that you were not arrested bc there is not enough of a basis to haul you in. They are trying to scare you. Unless the girl gave you up say nothing. However, these people who tell you to act like lawyers are idiots--the only thing you'll succeed in doing is confusing yourself and telling a lie. Just shut your mouth, let them take you in (they won't), and you'll be fine.
A few years back, I was at my ATF's apartment getting ready to have dinner, which she was cooking. We hadn't had sex, and probably wouldn't have had until much later in the evening anyway.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Someone pounding on the door.
She goes to answer the door, and a half-dozen plainclothes cops come streaming into the living room, uninvited. They separate us and start to question us. I let them see my ID and tell them she's my friend, which was true enough. They try to get me to talk, by being "my pal," or threatening me with jail, etc., but I tell them I've got nothing more to say, and I clam up. They keep us separated, with at least one cop with me at all times. Every now and then another cop will walk over from where my provider friend is to see if I've said anything, or to try again to trick or humiliate me into making a statement. One trick was to to pretend to call my wife on my cell phone, telling her they were the police and had caught me with a prostitute. I didn't react. They eventually left, after writing my friend a citation.
After they had gone, she told me they had caught a guy coming out of her apartment earlier and had leaned on him for information. The guy spilled everything, which I guess gave them probable cause to go roust her when I was there. The guy even called her up later to warn her about what happened, whereupon she verbally tore him a new asshole for being a spineless rat.
The only point to my story is this: The cops will try to scare you into making their case for them, even if (or especially if) they don't have any other evidence. Just keep your mouth shut. Be nice, be respectful, but don't fall for their BS. What helped me in this instance was that I was truly smitten by this lady, and wouldn't have given her up even if I had been taken to jail, but I learned that ratting her out wasn't even necessary to save my own ass. It was all a bluff. When you think about it, what could they arrest me for, anyway? It's not a crime to be in a prostitute's apartment, or to walk out of it. In any case, my remaining silent but respectful worked out well for me and for her.