[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5934 Introduced in House (IH)]
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5934
To declare the sense of Congress that the public safety exception to
the constitutional requirement for what are commonly called Miranda
warnings allows for unwarned interrogation of terrorism suspects, and
to amend section 3501 of title 18, United States Code, to assure the
admissibility of certain confessions made by terrorism suspects, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 29, 2010
Mr. Schiff introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To declare the sense of Congress that the public safety exception to
the constitutional requirement for what are commonly called Miranda
warnings allows for unwarned interrogation of terrorism suspects, and
to amend section 3501 of title 18, United States Code, to assure the
admissibility of certain confessions made by terrorism suspects, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Questioning of Terrorism Suspects
Act of 2010''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The United States Supreme Court, in New York v.
Quarles, 467 U.S. 649 (1984), determined that there is an
exception to the constitutional requirement for what are
commonly called Miranda warnings in situations posing a threat
to public safety.
(2) Terrorist plots have often consisted of coordinated
attacks on multiple targets.
(3) Captured terrorists may be the best and sometimes only
source of intelligence necessary to prevent pending or planned
attacks.
(4) The initial hours and days after capture are often the
most valuable from an intelligence collection perspective. Due
to the complexity of terrorist plots, an extended interview may
be necessary to procure the information necessary to protect
the public from a pending or planned attack.
(5) Just as courts have held that the public safety
exception established in Quarles exists even when questioning
is designed solely to protect the lives of police officers, the
public safety exception in the terrorism context is broad
enough to include questioning necessary to protect the lives of
troops on the battlefield from a pending or planned attack.
(6) Given the nature of international terrorism
investigations, it is often necessary to question captured
terrorists overseas in cooperation with other countries.
(7) In many cases, the full warnings set out in Miranda
cannot be provided to terrorism suspects in foreign custody,
since the rights referenced in Miranda may not be available to
the individual in that particular country.
SEC. 3. PUBLIC SAFETY EXCEPTION TO MIRANDA RULE IN TERRORISM
INVESTIGATIONS.
It is the sense of Congress that the public safety exception to the
constitutional requirement for what are commonly called Miranda
warnings allows unwarned interrogation of terrorism suspects for as
long as is necessary to protect the public from pending or planned
attacks when a significant purpose of the interrogation is to gather
intelligence and not solely to elicit testimonial evidence.
SEC. 4. ADMISSIBILITY OF CERTAIN CONFESSIONS MADE DURING TERRORISM
INVESTIGATIONS.
(a) Intelligence Gathering To Protect the Public Safety.--Section
3501 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end
the following:
``(f)(1)(A) In the case of an individual who is a terrorism
suspect, upon ex parte application made by the Government within 6
hours immediately following the person's arrest or other detention,
that individual may be taken before a magistrate not later than 48
hours after arrest or other detention and any confession made within
those 48 hours shall not be considered inadmissible solely because the
individual was not presented to a magistrate earlier.
``(B) Such an application must contain a certification by the
Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General, and the Director of
National Intelligence or the Principal Deputy Director of National
Intelligence, that--
``(i) the individual with respect to whom the application
is made is a terrorism suspect; and
``(ii) the individual may be able to provide intelligence
necessary to protect the public safety.
``(C) Upon ex parte application, the appropriate judicial officer
shall, for good cause shown and subject to such conditions as that
officer may prescribe, extend the time limitation provided by this
subsection for an additional 48 hours. Such application may be filed in
camera and the court's order shall be subject to interlocutory appeal.
``(2) As used in this subsection, the term `terrorism suspect'
means a person suspected of international terrorism or domestic
terrorism as those terms are defined in section 2331.''.
(b) Overseas Terrorism Investigations.--It is the sense of Congress
that a confession given during overseas questioning of a terrorism
suspect in foreign custody shall not be rendered inadmissible for
failure to provide Miranda warnings, if such confession was voluntarily
given and reliable.
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