Brown Law Office Criminal Defense News

In a landmark case that alters the standard that Ohio courts apply in criminal cases when determining if a suspect is in custody for purposes of Miranda warnings, the Ohio Supreme Court held that the test is not whether that a reasonable person would have felt free to leave; the test is whether a reasonable person would have understood that he or she was in custody.  In Cleveland v. Oles, 2017-Ohio-5834, the defendant was placed in the front seat of a police cruiser during a traffic stop and interrogated.  The question before the Court was whether placing an individual in the front seat of a police cruiser for questioning constituted custodial interrogation for purposes of Miranda v. Arizona.  That Court held that it did not, because the intrusion by the officer was minimal.  A link to the decision can be found here.

https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2017/2017-Ohio-5834.pdf

This decision provides guidance to Ohio criminal attorneys on what constitutes “custody” for purposes of Miranda warnings.  Contact the criminal attorneys at the Brown Law Office today at 330-601-0101 for a free consultation.