Unconstitutional soul search

But maybe not anymore. In an attempt to clarify the unless-otherwise-voluntary portion of the Miranda decision, Congress in 1968 enacted a law that explicitly provided for the admission of confessions that could be shown to have been voluntary using indicia other than the Miranda warning itself.

Despite the best efforts of the Clinton Department of Justice, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has recently acknowledged the existence of this law.

Amid the liberal caterwauling that has already begun, remember that the purpose of the 5th Amendment is to prevent involuntary confessions, not confessions that don't happen to follow a set speech invented on the spot by the Supreme Court roughly two centuries after the Constitution was adopted.

And though the main purpose of law enforcement is to lock up the guilty while protecting the innocent, it is not actually unconstitutional to save the souls of child-murderers such as Robert Williams in the process. Stay tuned.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Feb 26, 1999
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