Now this is funny. It looks like an FBI agent had climbed halfway over a tall wrought iron gate with a spiky top when it just swung open, so the other agent just walked on past. It might be an animated GIF in your future.
He wasn't mirandized because of a "public safety exception"; I'm wondering if it will be an issue at trial
Since that exception is allowed under the law, I doubt its use could be exploited by the defense in that way.
Yep. That'll be a problem. There is no public safety exception to the Miranda warning. Anything he says will be inadmissible, as will anything discovered as a result.
It comes from a 1980 Supreme Court decision called New York v. Quarles: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/february2011/legal_digest
Ah, the Supreme Court added one in 1980. They'll still have to be very careful to stay within its guidelines, but I'd assume the police doing the questioning are the top of the field.
Was this a "kaleidoscopic situation"? The police had control of the area, unlike a grocery store or a public space. I'm not so sure his lawyers will not argue this because it will likely be a death penalty case -
That sounds like a horrible case for carving such an exception. The suspect dumped his gun in a grocery aisle and that created an immediate threat to public safety? It's not like a pistol in a pile of broccoli is going to get up and start shooting people, unlike a bomb with a timer. Was the gun a clear threat to public safety, or were the police just feeling too lazy to go search for all the evidence, reaching behind all the cereal boxes and canned goods and creating a terrible mess to cleanup on aisle 3? If a gun in a store is such a dire and immediate threat to public safety, then why are gun stores with whole shelves of them such a safe place for police and the public to hang out? The current incident would be a much, much better case for establishing such an exception.
And I've just been told that the Miranda angle was bogus, and that the did in fact issue him the warning.
No. I'm good with what I said, and stand by it. He got out of the search area and after the illegal police state was lifted a citizen found him in his boat. So the cops fucked up big time.
I saw there was a news conference where the AG said they wouldn't be issuing the warning, but I don't have a source for where someone said they didn't skip it. However, if the suspect was unresponsive (possibly another injury from the flash bang) it wouldn't matter yet. I did see this bit: Waterboarding, electrodes to the genitals, sleep deprivation: He'll talk.