Legal Question in Criminal Law in Arizona

Re: Miranda rights of juveniles in school

Inculpating admission taken without Miranda warnings while the juvenile is in custody are inadmissible. As far as the juvenile having the right to have a parent present during interrogation. There is no such right, however the juvenile not being advised that he could have a parent present if he wanted to is part of the totality of the circumstances test to see if the juvenile's confession was voluntary.

Based upon these facts it is unlikely in counsel undersigned opinion that the juvenile's confession is admissible. If there are no witesses to the assault other than the victim the juvenile might have a viable case of self defense.

Re: Miranda rights of juveniles in school

Miranda can be a complicated subject. Really, any Miranda issue contains a further issue of "voluntariness" since the state must show that any admissions to police officers are voluntary. Even without a Miranda violation such statements can be inadmissible.

However, to answer your Miranda question - Yes it does apply to juveniles. However, certain circumstances must exist before the police must advise a person of his miranda rights. 1) the person must be in custody (not free to leave) and 2) there must be interrogation (any questioning or behavior of officers that in intended to illicit information). If these are the circumstances, if they had him somewhere he was not free to leave and thought he was a suspect and attempted to get information, then yes they were required to advise him of his rights and any subsequent statements may be suppressed.

I would be interested in hearing further details of your case so that I could provide you with more detailed information. Please feel free to call me at 480-833-6100 if you wish to discuss the matter further.