Oregon v. Mathiason

The ruling in Mathiason gave police more freedom to question criminal suspects and left uninformed persons more susceptible to coercive police interrogations. The decision pared down the significance of Miranda and signaled its demise. Preceded by Michigan v. Tucker (1974) and succeeded by several other cases, Mathiason became part of a string of cases that slowly drained Miranda of its precedential value. In 1984, the High Court held in New York v. Quarles that Miranda rights are not required if the questioning is prompted by an immediate concern for public safety. Two years later, in Moran v. Burbine (1986) the Court appeared to return to the pre-Miranda law of police questioning by looking only at the totality of the circumstances. In that case, officers prevented a suspect from seeing his lawyer, but the Court held that under the circumstances the incriminating statements were made voluntarily and did not have to be excluded from trial. However, in Withrow v. Williams (1993), the Court reapplied some value to the reading of Miranda rights when it held that, generally, a habeas corpus petitioner can base the petition on the failure of police to issue Miranda warnings before questioning.