Prioleau v. State

BARBERA, Judge.

We consider in this appeal whether the phrase “What’s up, Maurice?,” when uttered by a police officer to an arrestee, is interrogation or its functional equivalent as those terms are understood in the parlance of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and its progeny. For the reasons that follow, we hold that words “What’s up, Maurice?” were merely a greeting, given the circumstances in which they were spoken. The officer’s words did not constitute formal interrogation, nor were they spoken under circumstances that the officer should have known…