Garner v. Mitchell

The Supreme Court has repeatedly pronounced that a valid waiver of Miranda rights must be “a knowing and intelligent relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege.” Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 482, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981). The en banc majority opinion creates an entirely new rule that allows defendants to establish a lack of a knowing and intelligent waiver only if they do so at the moment they hear their Miranda rights. Under the majority’s formulation, the primary focus is on the conduct of police officers and whether the officers had reason to know at the…