Supreme Court of California

In this motor vehicle accident case, the judgment of the Court of Appeal holding that the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination categorically prohibited any reference to defendant’s post-arrest failure to inquire about others involved in the collision, is reversed and remanded where: 1) the US Supreme Court plurality in a recent case, Salinas v. Texas, applied a general rule - that a witness must assert the privilege against self-incrimination to benefit from it; and 2) applying the general rule, the Court here concluded that after defendant’s arrest but before his receipt of Miranda warnings, defendant did not make a timely and unambiguous assertion of the privilege in order to benefit from it.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/14/2014
• Published 08/14/2014

Judges

• BAXTER

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel