Oregon v. Mathiason

Respondent Carl Mathiason was convicted of first-degree burglary after a bench trial in which his confession was critical to the State’s case. At trial he moved to suppress the confession as the fruit of questioning by the police not preceded by the warnings required in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966). The trial court refused to exclude the confession because it found that Mathiason was not in custody at the time of the confession.

The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed respondent’s conviction, but on his petition for review in the Supreme Court of Oregon that court by a divided vote…