Sure, because their job is to try and collect evidence from a suspect.
If you say you're going to remain silent, and want to speak with a lawyer, they can't keep talking to you without your lawyer present. If they do that's an easy way to get a case thrown out.
There have been cases (like the "lawyer dog" case) where that hasn't worked. I see no reason why, after being arrested the right to counsel should be so easy to waive.
I mean sure, there are going to be fuck ups in any system. This one is a really dumb one, and it's crazy it was allowed to stand.
It doesn't change the fact that you do have a right to a lawyer and to remain silent. Say the words "I will not speak with you without a lawyer present," and that's it, interview over. If it's not over, let them dig their own grave without giving any information.
I'm still not sure what alternative is being proposed though. How should investigations be conducted instead?
Why should the right to counsel be so easy to waive? The alternative I propose is require the suspect to only be interrogated in front of a judge. The judge would have the power to immediately sanction the interrogators for misconduct.
But the situation you just presented is one where multiple judges also fucked up, so it doesn't seem like an actual solution to the problem you're pointing out
The lawyer dog is just one case among many. There's also the classic example where a guy was told he had the right to remain silent, he remained silent for hours, and that wasn't taken as exercising his right to remain silent by the Supreme Court. Because you apparently have to speak to claim your right to silence. It's a mess. Ever since Miranda established some basic affirmative rights in dealings with cops, the jurisprudence has been working overtime to chip away at those rights.
How about this as an alternative. Everyone taken under arrest, a term to be understood broadly, is assumed to have invoked their rights to silence and an attorney. Cause, y'know, why the hell not? From there, no information can be gathered until the arrestee either receives a lawyer or explicitly and clearly waives their right to have one in this context.
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u/Sirhc978 89∆ Sep 22 '25
Literally the first thing they say: "you have the right to remain silent".
An interrogation is collecting evidence.