Miranda Extended

When it comes to breaking new legal ground, the California Supreme Court is frequently a spadeful or two ahead of all others, including the U.S. Supreme Court. California's ruling last August that local property taxes are an unfair method of financing public schools (Serrano v. Priest) has already been echoed by courts in Minnesota and Texas. Last week, in a 6-1 decision, the California court once again established an important precedent by extending the Miranda rule, which bars the use of confessions made by suspects who have been denied access to legal counsel. Police, said the court, must also stop questioning a minor once the youth asks to consult with a parent.

On Dec. 19, 1968, police found the bodies of an elderly couple, Joseph and Isabelle Diosdado, in the back room of their feed store in Compton, Calif. Each had been shot twice, and the cash register was empty. Eight weeks later, following up an informant's tip, police officers arrested Bozzie Bryant Burton III, then 16. Young Burton asked to talk to his father, an auto-plant inspector who was already at the station in search of his son, but the police refused. They did advise him, however, of his right to remain silent and to consult an attorney. In the course of the interrogation the boy admitted that he had killed the Diosdados. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to a life term in prison.

Call for Help. In overturning the conviction, the state court ruled that denial of the youth's request to see his father constituted a violation of his Fifth Amendment right to avoid incriminating himself. Writing for the court, Justice Raymond Sullivan said that it would be "fatuous" to expect an arrested minor to call an attorney. "It is unrealistic," he added, "to attribute no significance to his call for help from the only person to whom he normally looks --a parent or guardian."

The California decision, which reinforces the rights of suspected criminals, comes just when many observers have been predicting a legal shift in exactly the opposite direction. President Nixon's four appointees to the Supreme Court are all expected to lean toward a tightening of criminal-law procedures. But the Los Angeles County district attorney's office does not plan to seek review of the case by the "Nixon Court." It promises to try Bozzie Bryant Burton III for murder again --without using his confession. And it is confident of a conviction. Which suggests that the California Supreme Court is not coddling criminals, but is simply requiring proper practices by the police.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.