Larry Thompson v. Louie L. Wainwright, Secretary, Department of Offender Rehabilitation

GEE, Circuit Judge:

In this case we decide whether police interrogators violated Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), in the course of taking an incriminating statement from a youth arrested for, and later convicted of, murdering a restaurateur with a butcher knife.

In October of 1973, the petitioner in this case, Larry Thompson, fatally stabbed Richard Dean, the night manager of the Royal Castle Restaurant, following Thompson’s aborted attempt to pilfer the cafe’s cash register.1 Realizing the probable consequences of his action, Thompson fled from Orlando,…