What Are My Rights During a Police Interrogation in New Jersey?

During a police interrogation, there are a lot of undue pressures on you. The police might put you in a corner, stand behind you to add pressure to the situation, and leave you in a room alone by yourself for a while before actually asking any questions. All of this pressure comes on top of the stressful situation you are in: you’ve already been arrested and might face jail time.

During a police interrogation, there are rights that protect you from this extra pressure. You may be familiar with your Miranda rights: the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, and the right to have one provided for you if you cannot afford a lawyer. These rights help combat the pressures against you, but it is important to know the extent of these rights and how to use them.

For help with your case, call Lombardo Law Group’s New Jersey criminal defense lawyers at (609) 418-4537 today.

What Are My Miranda Rights During a Police Interrogation in NJ?

Under Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the U.S. Supreme Court decided that police interrogations have a lot of pressure involved, and it is a requirement that the police explain your rights to you in order to help protect those rights. There are few areas of the law where the police – or any other government entity – actually has to go above and beyond to tell you what your rights are, and this is one of them.

Even so, understanding these “Miranda rights” is often a bit difficult for a non-lawyer, so we have laid out explanations of the three main rights in your “Miranda rights” and how to use them during an interrogation:

The Right to Remain Silent

The right to remain silent – or, more technically, the right against self-incrimination – is found in the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Under this amendment, you cannot be made to act as a witness against yourself, which functionally means that you have a right to stay silent and avoid answering any questions.

The first thing to know about this right is that you cannot remain silent to activate your right to remain silent. Under Salinas v. Texas (2013), you actually have to say, out loud, that you want to use your right to remain silent for it to be activated.

Your right to remain silent actually extends beyond police interrogations, as well. You can say that you want to remain silent or that you do not want to answer any questions any time police talk to you. You can also use this right to keep from being called to the witness stand in your own case.

This right also comes with an additional protection: the prosecution cannot use the fact that you invoked your right to remain silent as an argument against you. This means they cannot say anything to the jury about “only guilty people needing to remain silent,” and they should not even actually tell them that you did “plead the fifth.” However, pre-arrest silence does not necessarily get this protection.

Once you invoke the right to remain silent, the police have to stop asking you about this particular situation but can continue with questions about other things.

The Right to an Attorney

The 6th Amendment protects the right to an attorney – known as “Assistance of Counsel” in the actual text of the amendment. Like with the right to remain silent, you have to actually say you want to activate this right by saying something along the lines of, “I want a lawyer,” or “I will not answer questions without my lawyer.”

Once you ask for a lawyer, the police have to stop questioning you entirely until your lawyer is present. This usually leads to an opportunity to make some phone calls to get your Atlantic County criminal defense lawyers to come and help you answer questions. However, the police could also just give up on asking you questions.

While this stops all questioning, it does not last forever. Once you invoke your right to an attorney, the police can let you go from their custody. At that point, their ability to question you again without a lawyer present re-activates after 14 days under Maryland v. Shatzer (2009).

The Right to Have an Attorney Appointed

The Supreme Court found in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) that to protect the 6th Amendment right to an attorney, the government needs to provide you with an attorney if you cannot afford one. However, you might not want to invoke this right.

First, if you can afford an attorney, one will not usually be provided for you in an interrogation unless the police really need answers and you won’t talk to them without an attorney present. However, police rarely just give you a lawyer (even temporarily) if you can actually afford one. Second, the lawyers provided to those who cannot afford one are public defenders. While these attorneys might be great lawyers, they are often overworked and have too many cases on their docket to give you the amount of time you need to meet with them in every case.

As such, it is often better to hire your own private criminal defense lawyer, like those from our firm, if you are able to do so.

The Right to Have Your Rights Read to You

The main holding in Miranda was that the police have to read you these rights in order to help protect those rights. This is not a constitutional right like the rights discussed above, but it is a right that the police cannot violate. If they interrogate you in violation of the 5th and 6th Amendment rights above or if they do not follow Miranda and read you your rights, then our lawyers might be able to suppress any evidence they gained during the interrogation.

While you should continue to press that you want to remain silent and speak with a lawyer, if you do say anything after the police press you to continue the questioning, that evidence should be thrown out. This might even include things like confessions illegally obtained through these kinds of interrogations. However, there is no guarantee, so definitely do not say anything without your lawyer present.