Intoxicated Miranda Waiver Still a Waiver, Eighth Circuit Says

A convicted drug dealer lost his appeal over a trial court’s refusal to suppress statements he made to arresting police officers while intoxicated, after the Eighth Circuit said Thursday he was coherent enough to knowingly waive his right to remain silent.

Anthony Martinez Harris, who is serving 262 months in prison for distributing meth, argued that the incriminating statements he made to officers demonstrated “a substantial level of intoxication because no sober person facing criminal liability would make them to law enforcement.”

But intoxication is only a waiver problem when someone’s mental impairment causes their “will to be overborne,” the ...