Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

The right to remain silent is one of the most notable, useful, and important rights guaranteed to United States citizens via the Constitution. If you have ever watched even five minutes of any show featuring law enforcement, you have more than likely heard this right alluded to in a Miranda warning. However, one doesn’t have to be under arrest in order to exercise this right. In fact, one can use it to avoid giving any information that isn’t extremely basic, like what your name is, e.g., depending on the circumstances. This right, when asserted, allows the defendant to avoid giving incriminating information to the authorities, or at least avoid speaking to law enforcement before he is afforded the opportunity to speak to an attorney. In some situations, the failure to remain silent can have disastrous consequences.

Two Tennessee men were rolling through New York recently when they were pulled over by the police for having tinted windows and a missing license plate. When police asked the driver for his license, he handed it over along with his Tennessee gun permit while informing the policeman that he had a gun in the car, evidently in an attempt to be forthright with the officer. Unfortunately for the driver, his valid Tennessee gun permit was meaningless in the jurisdiction in which he was pulled over, so he had unwittingly given the police cause to arrest him. The driver also didn’t stop there with his efforts at being helpful, as he also informed the police that he had drugs and drug paraphernalia in the car as well as handcuffs, bullets, and an extra gun magazine. The passenger, also feeling particularly chatty at the time, volunteered that he too had a couple of “blunts” in the car’s ashtray.

These men were extremely helpful to and honest with the authorities and that may pay off when it comes to the sentencing phase of their trials if they are convicted, a topic which will be discussed in a later blog. However, there is a decent chance that if they had remained silent the police may have conducted the entire traffic stop without ever garnering any knowledge of the drugs or weapons at all. In situations like this, the defendants could have benefited greatly from either refusing to talk or asking to speak to an attorney immediately and may have been able to avoid many of the charges which they are now facing.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20000932-504083.html