Miranda rights in California: What you need to know about your right to remain silent

Miranda rights in California: What you need to know about your right to remain silent

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In California, as in other states, the right to remain silent is a fundamental right protected by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This means that if you are taken into police custody, you have the right to remain silent and not answer any questions. To ensure that individuals are aware of this right, law enforcement officers are required to provide Miranda warnings or Miranda rights when taking someone into custody.

These warnings inform individuals of their right to remain silent and that anything they say can be used against them in court. It is important to understand that exercising your right to remain silent cannot be used against you in court. This means that if you choose not to speak to law enforcement officers, your silence cannot be used as evidence of guilt.

Why are they called Miranda rights?

Miranda rights, also known as Miranda warnings, are a set of legal rights that must be read to a suspect in custody before they are questioned by law enforcement officials. These rights include the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, the right to have an attorney provided if the suspect cannot afford one, and the right to stop the interview at any time if they decide to answer police questions. 

These rights must be read to people who are in custody, which also includes people who are being interrogated and are likely to elicit an incriminating response. 

The law does not require interrogating police officers to “Mirandize” someone not technically in custody. Until recently, if a suspect chose to remain silent, it was not evidence of guilt in a court of law. In a 2013 decision, the US Supreme Court held that prosecutors could, under certain circumstances, point to an out-of-custody suspect’s silence in response to direct police questioning as evidence of guilt.

How can you invoke your right to remain silent?

According to the Court, the prosecution can comment on a suspect’s silence out of police custody and not Mirandized, voluntarily submits to police questioning, and stays silent without expressly invoking their Fifth Amendment rights.

In other words, if you choose to remain silent, you must explicitly invoke the right to say nothing. If you decide to stay silent without invoking your right, you are not invoking your right to silence, meaning it is not implicit that you have decided to invoke this right without speaking.

It is important to note that once you make this statement, the police are required to stop questioning you, and they cannot continue to do so without violating your constitutional rights. It is crucial to assert your right to remain silent explicitly and clearly. You can say something like, “I choose to remain silent” or “I am invoking my right to remain silent.” Doing so prevents the government from introducing evidence of your silence at trial.

If you have been questioned by the police or brought to the police for questioning, we advise you to get a criminal defense lawyer in San Diego, California. Call us at Kannan Law, and we’ll speak about representing you.