POSEY YOUTH ON TRIAL FOR MURDERS

Sixteen year old Cody Posey is on trial for murder, accused of killing his father, stepmother and stepsister with a firearm. Posey was fourteen when the incident occurred, on a southern New Mexico ranch owned by Sam Donaldson.

Last week the Judge ruled that the boy’s confession would be admitted into evidence. Defense attorney Gary Mitchell had argued that use of the confession would violate Posey’s constitutional rights under the case of Miranda v. Arizona (1966). The case requires that the accused be advised of certain “rights,” principally the right to counsel, and that the accused “waive” the right to counsel. The Judge said that happened here; and that because Posey “waived” his right to remain silent, and waived his right to counsel [same thing, as a lawyer would have told him to keep his mouth shut], the confession could be used. Otherwise the confession would have been excluded from the State’s case.

The Miranda case not only encourages fraud, it requires fraud to be committed by our law enforcement officers. Fraud in the sense of omission of critically material information. The police “advise” the accused, such as this boy when the boy was fourteen. “You have a right to an attorney while you are being questioned.” That is grossly misleading. There is no such thing as an attorney during questioning. If the accused indicates in any way that he wants an attorney, all questioning must cease. Questioning may resume if and when an attorney is hired or appointed and the attorney agrees to let her client talk to the police.

Fraud in the sense that the police omit to tell the accused fourteen year old that if he refuses to talk, if he “lawyers up,” that refusal cannot be used against the accused. Fraud in the sense that it is not in the best interests of a guilty accused, ever, to talk to the police without advice from an attorney.

The police take candy from the babies [ignorant, fearful, remorseful, stupid, emotionally disturbed], and the hardened criminal, the mafiosa and drug kingpin lawyer up. Yes, those babies are often cold blooded killers, but do we really want to have rules which favor the intelligent, remorseless, fearless killers?

The Miranda case is ill-advised and results in uneven justice. The Miranda case, and Griffin v. California (1965), give a one-two punch that results in our use of interrogation to punish the little man while we release the hardened killer and rapist.

The Miranda case allows the accused or lawyer to stop all interrogation; and the Griffin case says no inference may be drawn from the silence of the accused. Where is the common sense, the fairness, in such rules? From time immemorial before 1966, confessions were admitted into evidence if they were voluntary [no violence nor coercion nor threats of the like].

The Warren Court in 1966 decided that the police could not be trusted to tell the truth as to whether the confession was voluntary. So the Court laid down an absurd and unworkable waiver rule, but then said we will accept the word of the police as to whether the accused "waived" his rights to remain silent and get a lawyer's advice to keep mouth shut. This is an invitation to perjury, and is meaningless or ridiculous. This is said with all due respect to the Court.

Can you say that you are satisfied that Posey, at age fourteen, made a “knowing and intelligent” waiver of his rights to silence and advice of an attorney to remain silent? The rules laid down in the Miranda case and the Griffin case should be reexamined by the Supreme Court [now that we have two new hard liners]; or the rules should be reexamined by Congress and a constitutional amendment offered to in effect reverse these two cases. Forty years of impaired justice is enough.