ABSTRACT
Chavez v. Martinez, 538 US 760 in 2003, restricted the application of the self-incrimination clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Miranda rules to actual criminal cases. Oliverio Martinez had sued Officer Ben Chavez under section 1983 of the US Code, a provision that gives citizens a way to sue state officials in federal court for alleged violation of citizens' constitutional rights. Chavez had questioned Martinez over a forty-five-minute period after Martinez, who had been shot in a scuffle with police officers and believed he was dying, was being treated by medical personnel. The injuries left Martinez blind in one eye and paralyzed from the waist down. Officer Chavez had not issued Miranda warnings, and the US District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had accordingly ruled that Martinez could sue him. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy believed that a violation of the self-incrimination clause could occur even in cases where interrogations were not introduced at trial.
