Criminal Law in New Jersey: Miranda Warnings and the Right to Post Silence

Over forty (40) years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the landmark case of Miranda v. Arizona, which required law enforcement agents to provide certain warnings relating to an defendant’s  constitutional rights.  One of those warnings is that the defendant has a right to remain silence.

As time passed, law enforcement agents tried to use the post-arrest silence of a defendant for purposes of proving his guilt.  For example, if a defendant was arrested with possession of marijuana, a prosecuting attorney would ask the investigating police officer a line of questions like:  Did he looked surprised or upset?  Did he say anything and did he deny knowledge of the marijuana? 
It was not too long before that issue was taken to the Supreme Court where, it was determined in Doyle v. Ohio, that the government could not induce a defendant to remain silence consistent with the Miranda warnings and then to use that silence to the defendant’s detriment.

Some jurisdictions have decided to apply these principles even where there is pre-arrest silence.