Miranda v. Arizona: White Dissent: Subsection I Summary

  • Now it's Justice White's turn to dissent. His first point? While the Fifth Amendment does protect against self-incrimination, it should not be the responsibility of the police to warn people about their rights.
  • White goes on for a while listing a large number of court cases where the issue was whether a confession should be used if it's involuntary. What he's doing is setting up precedent—how the courts have ruled in the past. It's all about consistency.
  • What's his point with all of these cases? He has an issue with the word "involuntary." He argues that if a confession is "drawn out" (WhiteDissent.I.7) through the natural flow of questioning, then it's not involuntary.
  • White also says that if a confession is voluntary, even with no warning that the confession could be used against the person who gave it, it should be allowed in the trial.
  • This subsection ends with a statement similar to those of Harlan: thanks to confessions, many bad guys are in jail, and without those confessions, they might be out there causing chaos.