For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 20
INTERROGATING
YOUTH MIRANDA
WAIVERS AND
CONFESSIONS:
A DEVELOPMENTAL
PERSPECTIVE
Emily Haney-Caron and Johanna Hellgren
I
n 2011, police interrogated ten-year-old Joseph Hall
about the murder of his father, an abusive Neo-Nazi.1
The detective who Mirandized Joseph acknowledged
before reading the rights that Joseph could not really
understand them.2 When the detective asked Joseph
what his rights meant, Joseph showed profound
misconceptions-for example, explaining the right to
remain silent as a "right to stay calm."3 Despite this,
the detective proceeded to interrogate Joseph, and
Joseph ultimately provided inculpatory information
that would later be used to secure a delinquency
adjudication for second degree murder.4 On appeal,
Joseph challenged the validity of his Miranda waiver
and admissibility of his statements on the basis of his
developmental immaturity and clear misunderstanding
of his rights, but the appellate court found his waiver
valid, and the California Supreme Court and United
States Supreme Court denied review.5
Although Joseph's case is especially egregious, police
commonly secure Miranda waivers from children
and adolescents and, often, take confessions that
are ultimately admitted as evidence of the youth's
guilt. Prior to Miranda v. Arizona,6 the U.S. Supreme
Court noted that confessions from minors called
for extra caution because an adolescent could not
20
For The Defense l Vol. 5, Issue 3
be expected to "have a full appreciation" of his or
her rights.7 The Court reiterated this concern in In
re Gault when it extended the protections afforded
by Miranda to juvenile proceedings.8 However, the
Supreme Court later clarified that the same totality
of the circumstances test used to determine whether
an adult's Miranda waiver was given knowingly,
intelligently, and voluntarily would also apply to
children and adolescents-but, in so doing, indicated
that the totality test should include consideration of
a minor's "age, experience, education, background,
and intelligence, and . . . whether he has the capacity
to understand the warnings given to him, the nature
of his Fifth Amendment rights, and the consequences
of waiving those rights."9 More recently, in J.D.B.
v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court noted that-
because of youths' immaturity, lack of responsibility,
and poor judgment-a child's age must be considered
in evaluating whether he or she was in custody and,
therefore, entitled to the protections of Miranda.10
Together, these legal precedents make clear that
developmental science is relevant to a determination
of the admissibility of a child or adolescent's confession.
In this article, we provide an overview of the applicable
science on adolescent development and explain
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3
Contents
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 1
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 2
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - Contents
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 4
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