Legal Question in Criminal Law in New Hampshire

Re: was not read my rights befor being arrested

Your rights better known as your Miranda rights (Miranda v. Arizona) are invoked when the police have you in custody and attempt to elicit an incriminating verbal response from you. If the police do not question you then you do not necessarily have to be read your rights. For example if a person is engaging in open and obvious criminal conduct such as assault or erratic and drunken driving, the person can be taken into custody, arrested and processed without ever being read their rights and there is no Miranda violation. However if the police ask the individual any questions in an attempt to evoke an incriminating response then the person must first be read their rights before any incriminating statement will be admissible against them in court. Unfortunately, the �war on drugs� has produced some pretty bad and borderline unconstitutional rulings. However in your case the police must still have had at a minimum a reasonable articulable suspicion that you were engaging in some type of criminal activity to have stopped or focused their attention on you in the first place (probable cause). If there was an informant involved then that is a horse of a different color so to speak and raises numerous other issues and laws. My last piece of advice with drug possession crimes, first get a good lawyer, then get some drug counseling help, no one needs to smoke pot, it is not addictive, it is a choice and an illegal one at that which will only cause you further trouble in the future. Hope this was helpful.

Re: was not read my rights befor being arrested

maybe yes maybe no, depends on other facts