Polk Law Blog

Florida v. Powell (a case very similar to the Rigterink case that I blogged about previously) is being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (at around 11am, I think.) The defendant was arrested in Tampa, but the case involves the Polk County public defender¹. The defendant was given the following Miranda warning:

You have the right to remain silent.  If you give up this right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you in court.  You have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any of our questions.  If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed for you without cost and before any questioning.  You have the right to use any of these rights at any time you want during this interview.

The question before the court is whether this warning is sufficient to advise him of the right to counsel during questioning (it only says he can speak to counsel “before” questioning).

Scotuswiki has all the details and links to downloadable briefs on the case. Last I heard, local assistant public defender Deborah Brueckheimer will be arguing the case, an extremely neat thing for a local attorney to be doing, though that may have changed. I had the pleasure of making a mock argument on this very case at an Inn of Court meeting recently and very much enjoyed it. I’ll update this post to reflect how oral arguments went as soon as I can find out something.

EDIT 12/7/09:  A helpful reader (not sure if he wants to be identified) pointed out that the local public defender handles all appeals for the entire 2nd District Court of Appeals, which is based in Lakeland. That is why the local public defender is handling this case – it came from Hillsborough County which falls within the territory of the 2nd District.

1. I am not sure why [↩]