I normally support the American Civil Liberties Union’s view of protecting people’s, um, civil liberties.
But the ACLU’s objection to the federal government’s waiving of Miranda rights to the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing is off base.
The ACLU says every citizen deserves to be read his or her Miranda rights before being questioned by law enforcement authorities. The federal government, though, is invoking a long-standing exception to that rule by suggesting the existence of a potential future threat to public safety.
The Miranda rights stem from a 1966 Supreme Court ruling that gives criminal suspects “the right to remain silent,” as well as the right to legal counsel before being questioned by authorities. The bombing suspect has not yet been given that warning while he recovers from injuries he suffered while trying to elude capture after the Monday bombing along the Boston Marathon route.
I am confident that Dzokhar Tsarnaev – who only recently became a U.S. citizen – will get a fair trial if it goes that far; he still has the option of pleading guilty to the crime for which he will be charged.
My own view of this is that the government is reacting to what it perceives as a dangerous terrorist act. It has not yet determined whether there were accomplices to the plot the young man and his late older brother executed; Tsarneav’s brother, Tamarin, was killed by police in a fire fight.
So, until the government can determine beyond any doubt that these two young men acted on their own, it is within its right to do all it can to protect Americans from potential threats … such as the one perpetrated in Boston.