Florida Supreme Court reverses 2018 ruling on Miranda rights reminder
Florida Supreme Court reverses 2018 ruling on Miranda rights reminder
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday receded from its 2018 ruling in Shelly v. State that requires investigators to remind or readvise suspects of their rights when the suspects reinitiate contact with their interrogators.
Justice Jamie Grosshans, writing for the majority, concluded that a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court case, Bradshaw, provides the proper standard.
That standard asks two things: (1) did the suspect reinitiate contact with police and, if so, (2) did he knowingly and voluntarily waive his earlier-invoked Miranda rights.
The May 2 ruling is from State of Florida v. Zachary Joseph Penna, Case No. SC2022-0458.
Penna was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the 2015 slayings of two Palm Beach County men during a bizarre, one-man crime spree.
Penna was shot after attacking his arresting officers with a knife, but he was alert when police advised him of his Miranda rights at the hospital, court records show.
The investigators halted an initial interrogation when Penna requested a lawyer.
During his weeks-long hospital stay, Penna subsequently struck up conversations with an investigator who was guarding him on five separate occasions, and ultimately incriminated himself.