State v. Zakariyya Ahmad

Amicus brief that addresses whether a defendant was in custody for the purposes of Miranda v. Arizona?

This case at the New Jersey Supreme Court concerns the police interrogation of a 17 year old. After Mr. Ahmad was shot, police picked him up from the hospital and drove him to the prosecutor’s office, where they took a statement from him. He did not receive Miranda warnings. The statement was used to prosecute him for a robbery/murder.

The operative question in the case was whether Mr. Ahmad was in custody for Miranda purposes. In our brief, filed jointly with the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of NJ and the Northeast Juvenile Defender Center, and drafted by Laura Cohen and William Munoz, we argue that courts must consider the age of the suspect in evaluating whether the person would feel free to leave under the circumstances.