Miranda Rights? Never heard of her.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

The ruling comes in a case in which a suspect, Van Chester Thompkins, remained mostly silent for a three-hour police interrogation before implicating himself in a Jan. 10, 2000, murder in Southfield, Mich. He appealed his conviction, saying he had invoked his Miranda right to remain silent by remaining silent.

"Thompkins did not say that he wanted to remain silent or that he did not want to talk to police," Kennedy said. "Had he made either of these simple, unambiguous statements, he would have invoked his 'right to cut off questioning.' Here he did neither, so he did not invoke his right to remain silent."

LEARN2KYFMS.
If, after being silent for a while, you decide you would like to confess... No, you cannot take that back. You fucking failed at being silent. Had you remained silent, as you have the right to, or instead of saying something stupid said "I am not going to talk to you." you wouldn't be as fucked as you are now. Nobody seems to be saying your only options are saying "I want to be silent" or answering questions, though that seems to what those against this are arguing? They're saying "If you consider remaining silent to be exercising your right to do so, and then talk, you void that right."

Has it been in the past that by remaining silent the police were not allowed to continue interrogating you?
How much silence was required before you were officially silent and they had to stop asking questions?
It seems reasonable that you have to tell them you are not answering questions, rather than just ignoring them and hoping they get the message.

IAWTC.

I think the issue is that "rights" are now assumed to be waived until you explicitly invoke them. But really, this is nothing new. Police are specially trained to sidestep constitutional rights anyway. They are taught how to sneak-attack suspects to get them to either incriminate themselves or waive their rights. This ruling isn't the "police can't say anything to a suspect until they do everything in the State's power to prevent the suspect from accidentally incriminating himself" that many people would like, but it at least clears the legal mist and gives any of us as potential suspects a clear directive: Invoke your rights, and shut up.

[Cramulus]

Law prof and cop agree: never ever ever ever ever ever ever talk to the cops about a crime, even if you're innocent

http://boingboing.net/2008/07/28/law-prof-and-cop-agr.html

[tyrannosaurus vex]

It also creates a gigantic problem for police, if their suspects are aware of this doctrine. As it is, cops will keep talking to you after you invoke your rights.  They do this subtly, in a kind of 'informal small-talk' kind of way, but as long as you're talking they're listening to every word you say. People think asking for a lawyer exempts them from anything that transpires between the time they ask for a lawyer and the time one shows up. But this, way if you invoke your right to silence specifically, the cops have to leave you alone.

[Telarus]

When dealing with Bureaucracies, the Symbol is given more import than the Symbolized.