After the notice of rights, how must a military prosecutor or military judicial police officer record the suspect's answer on refusing to speak and on counsel's help?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
For this exercise we read the interrogation record and look for the part where the suspect is asked, after the notice, whether the right to refuse and the right to counsel's help will be exercised, and for how that answer appears.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading sets out the whole duty: the military prosecutor or military judicial police officer, having given the paragraph-one notice, must ask the suspect whether the right to refuse and the right to counsel's help will be exercised, must enter the answer in the record, and must have the suspect write the answer by hand or write it down and have the suspect seal or sign that part.
Another reading notes that the provision reaches the notice, these two rights, and the recording of the answer, and no further, so it does not say what an answer recorded without a seal or signature, or a missing notice, does to the interrogation record that follows.
Your judgment
If the answer appears only in the officer's handwriting with no seal or signature, what in the file would show which account of the suspect's choice should be believed?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change how the answer must be recorded, or if a court decides what weight a defective record of that answer carries.