Here's a great example of the importance of procedural limits on the power of government. A Florida judge has thrown out the evidence from the search of Lisa Nowak's car search and her interview with police.
Orange County Circuit Judge Marc L. Lubet said investigators took advantage of the 44-year-old, who had not slept for more than 24 hours before the alleged February airport attack of a purported romantic rival for a fellow astronaut's affections.
Lubet said Orlando police Detective Chris Becton answered evasively when Nowak asked about an attorney, and hadn't read her Miranda rights before he started questioning. "Detective Becton failed to answer defendant's question regarding whether she needed an attorney in a truthful and straightforward manner," Lubet wrote.
"There was a concerted effort to minimize and downplay the significance of the Miranda rights by referring to these constitutional rights as mere 'formalities."'
Lubet said Becton wrongly made "direct and implied promises of benefit," vowing to talk to prosecutors on her behalf if she cooperated. "He made threats and used coercive psychological techniques," Lubet wrote, of Becton's more than six-hour jailhouse interview.
Here is the order from the judge suppressing the evidence. We'll touch on this in my 2302's next week.
In case you forgot, Nowak was the astronaut that drove from Houston to Orlando non-stop in a diaper to confront a woman she thought was competing for the affections of a man she thought might be interested in her. Except it turns out that she wasn't wearing a diaper after all.
Pity.
