Putting Theory into Practice

Shortly after a Chicago restaurant was burglarized one night last week, Policeman Richard Kereta spotted a man running down the street. Kereta collared the suspect when he stopped to urinate under a porch. "I didn't do nothin' and I ain't answering questions," said Danny Escobedo, 28, as he was taken to the police station and plunked into a cell. Escobedo (TIME cover, April 29) well knew his rights: they were first limned in the Supreme Court decision that voided his murder admission in 1964 (Escobedo v. Illinois), and amplified last June when the court applied the rights of silence and counsel to all police interrogation (Miranda v. Arizona).

Chicago cops had also got the message. Asked if he had questioned Escobedo, one police lieutenant pointed wordlessly at a bold-lettered sign on the station-house wall: EVERY PERSON

SHALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN

SILENT. As for Danny, he notified his lawyer,removed his shoes, went to sleep in his cell, and prepared to let the prosecutor try to prove his case.

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