Washington, May 19: A coalition of US civil rights groups urged US Attorney General Eric Holder Tuesday to refrain from attempting to restrict the rights of people detained on suspicion of engaging in terrorism.
In the letter, 35 groups — including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights Watch — expressed “concern” over Holder’s recent call to “codify or expand the ‘public safety exception'” to rules that give suspects the right to consult an attorney before answering police questions.
“Current law provides ample flexibility to protect the public against imminent threats while still permitting the use of statements made by the accused in a criminal prosecution,” read the letter.
The source of their fears are recent Holder statements on a possible review, with help from Congress, that would expand the “public safety exception” to the so-called Miranda rights.
The Miranda rules, established in a 1966 Supreme Court ruling, forbids prosecutors from using statements made by suspects before they have been warned that they have a right to remain silent and have the right to an attorney.
The exception to the Miranda rule was introduced in the early 1980s in a case involving a supermarket robbery, in which police wanted to recover the handgun the thief used and wanted information on any imminent threat before the suspect was read his rights and could potentially remain silent.
Holder told members of the House of Representatives last week that the administration believes that “only in terrorism-related matters … modernizing, clarifying, making more flexible the use of the public safety exception” would be “something beneficial.”
“We’re now dealing with international terrorists,” the attorney general told NBC television on May 9.
“I think that we have to think about perhaps modifying the rules that interrogators have and somehow coming up with something that is flexible and is more consistent with the threat that we now face,” he said.
Talk of expanding the exception rule follows the arrest of Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad, suspected of trying to detonate the car bomb in New York’s bustling Times Square district on May 1.
Holder said that Shahzad was interrogated under a public safety exception to the Miranda rule, and that he provided investigators with valuable intelligence and evidence.
“He was Mirandized later and continued to cooperate and provide valuable information,” said FBI deputy director John Pistole, referring to when the suspect was informed of his Miranda rights.
Holder insists that the current system works well despite incessant criticism from opposition Republicans, for whom terrorism suspects should be treated as “enemy combatants” and not as ordinary criminals.
The US Department of Justice did not respond to a query whether the move to expand the use of the public safety exception was a change of position.
—Agencies