1ST AMENDMENT, MEET THE 5TH :

Lindh attorneys want CNN tape barred : Interview lacked Miranda warning (Edward Epstein, June 19, 2002, SF Chronicle)

Raising unprecedented questions about the role of media war correspondents, attorneys for John Walker Lindh asked a judge Tuesday to bar as evidence from his trial an incriminating, widely seen interview Lindh gave to CNN in December.

The San Francisco-based attorneys for the 21-year-old Marin County man charged with terrorism argued that the interview with CNN contributor Robert Pelton was coerced out of a frightened, wounded and dazed Lindh.

It's been awhile, but I was under the impression that you couldn't enforce the 5th Amendment provisions against non-governmental individuals and institutions. So, for instance, I could search your house without a warrant and even though I'd be subject to prosecution for trespass and burglary and whatever, if I turned over evidence of criminality that I found there to the government it would be admissible against you. It seems like it would be particularly hard to argue that a member of the press was in effect acting as an agent of government, because the press is specifically protected from government interference.

Also, mustn't there be some assumption that when you speak into a microphone and a camera that your communication will become public and is not protected?

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 19, 2002 10:49 PM