The case was spurred by an excessive force civil suit filed by Oliverio Martinez, a man blinded and paralyzed Nov. 28, 1997, by a police shooting in Oxnard, Calif., about 60 miles north of Los Angeles. Martinez asserts he was interrogated by an officer in an ambulance as he lay in the hospital pleading for treatment.
Miranda rights, which have been at the center of heated debate for three decades, were created at a time when the Supreme Court felt police officers should be under stricter control, said Richard Rosen, senior associate dean of the UNC School of Law.
The rights allow a person to remain silent and have an attorney present while in police custody and when interrogated. Answers attained without the rights being read cannot be used in court, said Terrie Gale, police attorney for the Chapel Hill Police Department.
"(They) say that if you are in custody ... law enforcement cannot interrogate you until you waive your rights," Gale said. "If a law officer gets you to answer a question without Mirandizing you, the answers are not admissible (in evidence for a trial)."
But subtler issues lie within the case. Martinez never was arrested, so the Supreme Court must decide when it is appropriate to use Miranda rights and what remedy a violation will have, said Gloria Killian, office assistant for the Southern California Criminal Justice Consortium. "In a constitutional sense, you can't know something you haven't been specifically told," she said.
As a rule, Chapel Hill police do not question whether to read suspects their rights, Gale said. "We always read Miranda rights when we are intending to interrogate someone, and we don't interrogate someone until they waive (them)."
But some say an increasing number of immigrants entering the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area cause concerns that some will not fully understand their rights. "Obviously, if you don't understand it, you can't be advised," Killian said.
Chapel Hill police carry a written copy of the rights in Spanish and can use on-call translators to inform people who speak languages other than English and Spanish their rights, Gale said. She said the department also ensures that officers are trained in appropriate interrogation procedures.
Concerns exist that if the court decides the treatment of Martinez was constitutional, personal rights will be further eroded, especially in the wake of Sept. 11.
