Raymond B. answered • 11/24/20
Math, microeconomics or criminal justice
If police make an arrest, they need to warn the suspect that they have the right to remain silent and they have the right to an attorney & an attorney will be appointed for them if they cannot afford one. And a warning that anything the arrested says can & will be sued against them. TV shows showing arrests are fairly accurate. So it's pretty much assumed most all people arrested already know their Miranda rights, if they watch TV.
To get around this, police will often claim they just "detained" the suspect and did not make an "arrest". It's an ambiguous area, with no clear line between "arrest" and "detention" IF the suspect was "merely" detained then the refusal to answer questions based on the 5th Amendment can & will be used against the suspect in court.
A big legal question arose in a case with an Arizona "coyote" a guy who transports Mexicans across the border for major money. This coyote however left his van load of Mexicans to die in the Arizona desert. Police arrested him and demanded to know where he left the van. He refused to answer on 5th Amendment or Miranda grounds. Due to his failure to help the Mexicans be rescued, they died. They prosecuted him for murder, multiple murders. He skated, and got off, since the 5th Amendment protected him from using his refusal to answer against him in a criminal case. It was a major controversy. Yet, the 5th Amendment & Miranda seemed to protect him, in the legal community and courts. It brought the courts & legal community a little black eye, for a while, if anyone had ever heard of the case.
