Sandra Day O'Connor

“ The threat of an indefinite deferral of interrogation, in a system like Indiana's, thus constitutes an effective means by which the police can pressure a suspect to speak without the presence of counsel. Sanctioning such police practices simply because the warnings given do not misrepresent state law does nothing more than let the state-law tail wag the federal constitutional dog. ”

“ The awarding of habeas relief years after conviction will often strike like lightning, and it is absurd to think that this added possibility of exclusion years after the police conduct at issue will have any appreciable effect on police training or behavior. As Judge Friendly wrote: "The mere failure to administer Miranda warnings . . . creates little risk of unreliability, and the deterrent value of permitting collateral attack goes beyond the point of diminishing returns." ”

“ Justice O'CONNOR recognizes as much, acknowledging that the privilege against self-incrimination reflects the longstanding belief that "the extraction of proof of guilt from the criminal defendant himself is often an adjunct to tyranny and may lead to the conviction of innocent persons." ”

“ Eagan was initially advised that he had the right to the presence of counsel before and during questioning. But in the very next breath, the police informed Eagan that, if he could not afford a lawyer, one would be appointed to represent him only "if and when" he went to court. As the Court of Appeals found, Eagan could easily have concluded from the "if and when" caveat that only "those accused who can afford an attorney have the right to have one present before answering any questions; those who are not so fortunate must wait." ”

“ Under Article III of the Constitution, Congress-not this Court-determines the scope of jurisdiction of the inferior federal courts. Congress is undoubtedly aware that federal habeas review of state criminal convictions might disserve interests of comity and finality and might make the enforcement of state criminal laws more difficult. Congress has determined, however, that the individual's interest in vindicating his federal rights in a federal forum outweighs these concerns. ”

“ Without this additional warning, the admonition of the right to consult with counsel would often be understood as meaning only that he can consult with a lawyer if he has one or has the funds to obtain one. The warning of a right to counsel would be hollow if not couched in terms that would convey to the indigent-the person most often subjected to interrogation-the knowledge that he too has a right to have counsel present. ”

“ In my view, this same weighing process leads ineluctably to the conclusion that the suppression remedy should not be available on federal habeas where the state courts have accorded a petitioner a full and fair opportunity to litigate a claim that Miranda warnings were not given or were somehow deficient. Indeed, the scales appear to me to tip further toward finality and repose in this context than in Stone itself.
The Fifth Amendment guarantees that " [n] o person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." ”

“ None of these judges has intimated any doubt as to respondent's guilt or the voluntariness and probative value of his confession. After seven years of litigation, the initial determination of the Miranda issue by the state trial judge and the Indiana Supreme Court has been found to be the correct one. In my view, the federal courts' exercise of habeas jurisdiction in this case has served no one: no violation of the Fifth Amendment itself has ever been alleged; there is no doubt that respondent is guilty of the crime of which he was convicted and deserving of punishment ”

“ In lawyerlike fashion, THE CHIEF JUSTICE parses the initial warnings given Eagan and finds that the most plausible interpretation is that Eagan would not be questioned until a lawyer was appointed when he later appeared in court. What goes wholly overlooked in THE CHIEF JUSTICE's analysis is that the recipients of police warnings are often frightened suspects unlettered in the law, not lawyers or judges or others schooled in interpreting legal or semantic nuance. ”

“ To the average accused, still hoping at this stage to be home on time for dinner or to make it to work on time, the implication that his choice is to answer questions right away or remain in custody until that nebulous time 'if and when' he goes to court is a coerced choice of the most obvious kind. ”

“ Congress already engaged in that balancing process when it created habeas review and extended the federal courts' jurisdiction to all claims based on a violation of federal law. The federal courts have been reviewing Miranda claims on federal habeas for 23 years, and Congress has never even remotely indicated that they have been remiss in doing so. To the extent Justice O'CONNOR is unhappy with Miranda, she should address that decision head on. But an end run through the habeas statute is judicial activism at its worst. ”

“ Miranda, it is true, does not require the police to have a "station house lawyer" ready at all times to counsel suspects taken into custody. 384 U.S., at 474, 86 S.Ct., at 1628. But if a suspect does not understand that a lawyer will be made available within a reasonable period of time after he has been taken into custody and advised of his rights, the suspect may decide to talk to the police for that reason alone. ”

“ But irrespective of one's view of the merits of Miranda, the critical point is that Miranda is still good law. With few exceptions, prosecutors in state courts may not introduce statements taken from a criminal suspect in violation of his Miranda rights. If a state trial court permits the introduction of such statements, federal constitutional error has been committed. Unless the defendant's conviction is reversed, he is indisputably being held "in violation of the Constitution . ”

“ The suspect is given no reason to believe that the appointment of an attorney may come after interrogation. To the extent one doubts that it is the "if and when" caveat that is the source of the confusion, compare the initial warning given Eagan, quoted ante, at 198, and the crystal-clear warning currently used by the FBI, quoted ante, at 202, n. 4. The majority's claim that the two warnings are indistinguishable in the message co veyed to a suspect defies belief. I dissent. ”

“ Miranda claim based on "voluntary" statements. The explicit premise of Miranda is that, unless a suspect taken into custody is properly advised of his rights, "no statement obtained from the [suspect] can truly be the product of his free choice" as a matter of federal constitutional law. 384 U.S., at 458, 86 S.Ct., at 1619; see also id., at 445, 86 S.Ct., at 1612. As Justice Douglas explained: "Miranda § purpose was not promulgation of judicially preferred standards for police interrogation, a function we are quite powerless to perform ”

“ It disturbs the State's significant interest in repose for concluded litigation, denies society the right to punish some admitted offenders, and intrudes on state sovereignty to a degree matched by few exercises of federal judicial authority. ”

“ Powell to respondent's Miranda claim below or in its petition for certiorari, there is language in Stone which suggests that the bar it raises to relitigation of certain claims on federal habeas is jurisdictional or quasi-jurisdictional in nature. ”

“ I also write to express my disagreement with Justice O'CONNOR's uninvited suggestion that the rationale of Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465, 96 S.Ct. 3037, 49 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1976) , should be extended to bar federal habeas review of Miranda claims.
* In Miranda, the Court held that law enforcement officers who take a suspect into custody must inform the suspect of, among other things, his right to have counsel appointed to represent him before and during interrogation: "In order fully to apprise a person interrogated of the extent of his rights . . ”