Are Miranda Rights Becoming Less Relevant in 2020?

Absolutely not! There are some recent cases that have just been handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court that talk about Miranda and there are definitely circumstances where statements themselves are the biggest piece of evidence for the prosecutor, especially in a circumstantial case where they don’t have direct evidence of the crime. Additionally, there are circumstances where those statements led to the recovery of other evidence and if there is a Miranda violation. That would arguably be fruit of the poisonous tree, statements get thrown out as does the additional evidence. There are very recent cases that were handed down that talk about coercion in the context of Miranda and even though there were Miranda waivers given, the question was whether the statements were voluntary and it’s important that an aggressive and experienced defense attorney actually examines the way in which the custodial interrogation took place, even in the face of proper Miranda warnings being given. If there is extensive coercion by the police and fabrication of facts in order to coerce a confession, that could cause statements to get thrown out and excluded, so this is a very interesting and constantly changing area of law where we’re really trying to seek protection from improper police conduct and it is a misconduct by police, takes place all the time, and it’s a matter of having an aggressive that digs through recordings and notes and other forms of discovery to look for those things.