The Atlanta Lawyer August/September 2011 | Page 25

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children and adults. Adults don’t get called to the principal’s
office. Justice Sonia Sotomayor described the idea that you
could do a Miranda custody analysis in J.D.B’s case or in
many other juvenile cases without considering age.
By interrogating J.D.B. at his middle school, the police were
able to take advantage of the natural regard to authority that
most students exhibit when at school. They were able to
question J.D.B. in a setting that reasonably seems protective
to kids while hiding behind the fact that “a reasonable adult”
would not believe himself to be in custody there. The police
were also able to bypass the protection of J.D.B’s family, who
had earlier objected to his being questioned by the police.
Arguably, J.D.B. had been in custody for the purposes of
Miranda when he was first brought into that conference
room. Before being questioned and confronted with the stolen camera he should have been told of his right to remain
silent, warned that whatever he said could be used against
him in court, told that he had a right to have an attorney
present during questioning and assured that an attorney
would be provided if he could not afford one. These four
simple warnings are a small price to pay for a fairly obtained
confession.
All of which raises the larger issues at stake in the case. what
happens constitutionally to children when they show up for

school in the morning? Do they lose their rights against selfincrimination to the degree that they respect their teachers
and administrators? Should police investigations for crimes
that don’t even occur at school be allowed to piggy-back on
a school’s disciplinary authority?
People send their children to school to learn, not to be interrogated behind their backs and not to be tricked into giving up
rights they don’t even know they have. In allowing courts to
consider age in determining Miranda rights for juveniles like
J.D.B., the Supreme Court makes it more likely that juveniles
will be dealt with fairly by the police that they increasingly
encounter at our nation’s schools. That is one lesson that
our schools can’t do without.
In conclusion, I basically feel that age shouldn’t matter but
humanity and natural rights should. Every person that is accused of a crime and taken into any form of custody should
be told their Miranda rights and deserve to know that they
have a choice when it comes to being questioned by the
police. Its instances like this that demonstrate the abuse
of power capable by those most trusted - police officers,
principals, and even teachers. I wonder how they would feel
if their own children or loved ones had been put in J.D.B.’s
situation. Perhaps they too would have to question the ethics
of interrogating a minor and violating the rights he wasn’t
even aware that he had.▪

Shown from left to right are SLIP interns JaKira smith, Marcya Burden and sakinah Muhammad.
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association

August/September 2011

THE ATLANTA LAWYER

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