The right to silence

Especially after the decision of New South Wales to amend the "right to silence", this blog makes some interesting and topical points regarding the questioning / interviewing / interrogation of the Boston marathon bomber suspect:

http://apublicdefender.com/2013/04/22/the-cost-of-quarles/

"It appears now that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was begun to be questioned late on Sunday evening, almost 48 hours after he was apprehended, hiding in a boat in a backyard.

There are some things that should be without dispute:

1. That Tsarnaev is an American Citizen;

2. That the Constitution and all of its protections apply to all American citizens to (and, to be sure, to all residents, but that’s not necessary here), and;

3. That, by virtue of 1 & 2, Tsarnaev has the inalienable right to remain silent, to be appointed councsel and to not be made a witness against himself. 

It is irrelevant that the privilege against self-incrimination is a trial right, in that if the right is violated, the statements cannot be used against him at his own trial. It is irrelevant that Miranda is prophylactic and isn’t a right in of itself, but an advisement of already existing rights.

The right exists. It is his right; it is my right; it is your right."