Cite as: 507 U. S. 680 (1993)
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
ments. Quite the opposite: The Fifth Amendment, by its terms, prohibits only compelled self-incrimination; it makes no mention of "unwarned" statements. U. S. Const., Amdt. 5 ("No person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself" (emphasis added)). On that much, our cases could not be clearer. See, e. g., Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U. S., at 448 ("Cases which involve the Self-Incrimination Clause must, by definition, involve an element of coercion, since the Clause provides only that a person shall not be compelled to give evidence against himself"); see Elstad, supra, at 306-307; New York v. Quarles, 467 U. S., at 654-655, and n. 5. As a result, the failure to issue warnings does "not abridge [the] constitutional privilege against compulsory self-incrimination, but depart[s] only from the prophylactic standards later laid down by this Court in Miranda." Tucker, supra, at 446. If the principles of federalism, finality, and fairness ever counsel in favor of withholding relief on habeas, surely they do so where there is no constitutional harm to remedy.
Similarly unpersuasive is the Court's related argument, ante, at 692, that the Fifth Amendment trial right is not "necessarily divorced" from the interest of reliability. Whatever the Fifth Amendment's relationship to reliability, Miranda's prophylactic rule is not merely "divorced" from the quest for truth but at war with it as well. The absence of Miranda warnings does not by some mysterious alchemy convert a voluntary and trustworthy statement into an involuntary and unreliable one. To suggest otherwise is both unrealistic and contrary to precedent. As I explained above, we have held over and over again that the exclusion of un-warned but voluntary statements not only fails to advance the cause of accuracy but impedes it by depriving the jury of trustworthy evidence. Supra, at 703. In fact, we have determined that the damage Miranda does to the truth-seeking mission of the criminal trial can become intolerable. We therefore have limited the extent of the suppression rem-
707
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