Archive

Obama 'Open to' Miranda Changes

War on Terror

Says David Axelrod.

President Obama is “open to looking at” a new rule that would allow terror suspects to be questioned for longer periods before they’re notified of their Miranda rights, White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN on Monday. The change, called for by Attorney General Eric Holder, comes in the wake of outcry that the accused Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and attempted underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab were being treated as criminal defendants rather than as military detainees under wartime rules. Axelrod said the administration was willing to look at a change to the rule, but would make adjustments, not a wholesale revision. A Supreme Court ruling in 1966 created the Miranda rule to prevent confessions from being coerced.

Read it at The New York Times