You can almost always refuse to answer police questions, but depending on the circumstances it may produce somewhat different legal results.
Here is a general breakdown of your legal options when questioned by the police in three common scenarios:
When your case is before a court of law, you’ll hear many words tossed around.
Some words are more important than others. Some could mean that your case actually has potential to be overturned.
Other words just refer to a legal technicality.
What does “harmless error” mean?
The U.S. Supreme Court issued two rulings Tuesday in separate cases involving police drug dogs and police detentions in relation to a search.
One ruling seems to give police more freedom to conduct searches using drug-sniffing dogs, while the other works to limit police and their ability to detain suspects when officers are conducting a search of their home.
Here's what you need to know:
A mandatory sentence of life without parole for teen murder is not constitutional according to a Supreme Court ruling on Monday.
In a 5-4 ruling, the Court determined that mandatory sentencing schemes for homicide crimes are not applicable to juveniles tried for homicide. Mandatory sentences do not allow judges and juries sufficient discretion to consider youth as a factor in sentencing according to the majority opinion by Justice Elena Kagan.
The decision marks the third case in five years by the Court that deals with sentencing for juveniles.
Is warrantless GPS tracking legal?
We asked this question back in November, and on Monday, we were given an official answer. Sort of.
The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that secretly placing a GPS tracking device on a suspect's vehicle is a "search" under the 4th Amendment. And if police want to carry on this type of search for an extended period of time, it's advisable they get a warrant.
For the second time in two years, the Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether juvenile life sentences violate the 8th Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
At issue is whether life without parole is an appropriate sentence for young juveniles whose crimes result in homicide. The Court will hear Miller v. Alabama and Arkansas' Jackson v. Hobbes, both of which involved 14-year-old defendants.
Therefore, the Court's decision will be limited to defendants aged 14 and younger.
Warrantless GPS tracking will make its way to the Supreme Court this week, when the justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments in U.S. v. Jones.
The court will consider whether police must first obtain a warrant before placing a GPS device on a suspect's car. More specifically, the Court is tasked with deciding whether the Fourth Amendment bans warrantless GPS tracking when it lasts for an entire month.
Troy Davis' death has brought to light a number of questions about the death penalty appeals process.
Just an hour prior to his Wednesday execution, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay of execution. Three hours later, it officially denied the stay, allowing the injection procedure to go forward.
Why did the high court first grant, then deny a stay?
Texas inmate Cleve Foster was set to be executed Tuesday evening. That is, until the nation's highest court halted his execution.
The Supreme Court's stay of execution came down just hours before Foster was set to die. It was also the second time this week the court issued a stay of execution to a Texas death row inmate.
Foster, 47, is a former Army recruiter who was sent to death row for allegedly raping and murdering a woman he met at a Texas bar in 2002.
The Supreme Court has ruled that fleeing police is a violent felony.
In a 6-3 decision in Sykes v. United States, Marcus Sykes was appealing his enhanced federal sentence under the Armed Criminal, Career Criminal Act. The Act meant that Sykes got a mandatory minimum 15-year sentence that was enhanced due to his prior felonies - one of them being fleeing from police, reports CNN.
Sykes had been seen by officers driving at night without headlights. When police flashed their emergency sirens, he took off, starting a chase that included Sykes ramming through a fence and crashing into a house, reports CNN.
