Deck 10: The Fifth Amendment: Obtaining Information Legally

Question 1

Why should government be limited on how and when it asks questions?

Answer 1

The government's capability to obtain confessions from those suspected of committing a crime is critical in its ability to enforce the law. However, there needs to be limitations on how it can obtain confessions to ensure constitutional rights are not violated. The right to remain silent clause in the "Fifth Amendment" was enacted to shield against self-incrimination. This clause prohibits the government from coercing individuals to answer questions that would incriminate them.

Question 2

What two criteria must be met for the Miranda warning to be necessary?

Answer 2

The Miranda warning is required to inform arrested suspects of their rights under the Fifth Amendment. The Miranda warning is not necessary before a suspect is brought into custody and interrogated (petrocelli, 2010, p.18) but not immediately after arrest.
• Custody is referred to the situation where the suspect is not allowed to leave and would recognize the circumstances with that of a formal arrest.
• Interrogation is referred to as the formal and rigorous questioning by law enforcement to produce evidence or other material to incriminate the source of the information.

Question 3

Does the Miranda decision impede police work?

Answer 3

The national center for policy analysis accuses the Miranda warning as being the cause of the considerable number of criminal cases that are lost every year. The Miranda warning is necessary to inform suspects of their rights under the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination and counsel after arrest. Before the Miranda case the courts were struggling with the necessity to balance citizen's protection under the Fifth Amendment and society's desire to resolve criminal cases.

Question 4

Would a different result occur, given exactly the same circumstances of an interrogation, for what a private security officer could do as opposed to what a city police officer must do?

Question 5

Why shouldn't a stop require the Miranda warning?

Question 6

Referencing Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's proposition that it is better that some criminals escape rather than have the government involved in playing an ignoble part, what logic can you see in releasing a suspect who has confessed to a crime under circumstances that prohibit use of that admission, when the police know that person committed the crime? Where is the fairness here?

Question 7

What do you think motivates informants, and should their information be considered reliable?

Question 8

Why would it be wise for an officer to read the Miranda rights from a card?

Question 9

Why might trickery, innuendo, or even falsehoods asserted by police during questioning not be Fifth Amendment violations?

Question 10

Considering the USA PATRIOT Act, do you think Americans could ever sacrifice too many rights in exchange for national security?