Friday, December 21, 2007

Miranda in Tenth Circuit

J. Lance Hopkins won in U.S. v. Revels, No. 06-5223 (10th Cir. Dec. 20, 2007), successfully defending an Oklahoma federal district court's Miranda suppression order in a government interlocutlory appeal. Here is coverage from Decision of the Day Blog. The Tenth Circuit reviewed the undisputed facts surrounding the execution of a state search warrant and Revels' subsquent questioning:

we conclude that a reasonable person in Revels’ position would have considered herself under a degree of restraint equivalent to formal arrest and that officers should have extended Miranda advisements prior to their questioning. The undisputed facts demonstrate that the officers’ actions created the type of coercive environment that Miranda was designed to address.

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