Judge Invalidates Admission by Va. Slaying Suspect

Experts said the Kadian case was unlikely to further restrict police interrogation methods. Instead, if MacKay's ruling is upheld, it is likely to reinforce the Supreme Court's warning that police must "Mirandize" before venturing close to the case.

When Kiran Kadian's husband discovered her body the day she was killed, he told police that his son was a likely suspect. Jayant Kadian had expressed "psychotic tendencies" and had threatened his mother in the past, according to court records.

He was found the next morning in a parking garage at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., sleeping in his car. Campus police found marijuana in the car, arrested him and read him his Miranda rights. He was held while Fairfax detectives Allen and Robert Bond sped to Harrisonburg.

Allen testified that the first thing he said when he walked into the room where Kadian sat was that "his father and sisters were concerned about his welfare." Allen said Kadian did not respond.

Next, Allen asked if Kadian knew why Fairfax police were there, which Kadian acknowledged vividly. Allen said, "I then asked him if the [JMU] officers who had arrested him had advised him of his rights, and he advised that they had."

But Allen said he felt the need to make a new set of Miranda warnings to Kadian, for the homicide. He did so, and Kadian waived his right to an attorney and proceeded to describe stabbing his mother in the neck. Kadian felt his mother was pressuring him to see a psychiatrist and harassing him over another recent marijuana arrest.

MacKay wrote that Allen "asking such a question, then giving a defendant Miranda warnings, then asking about the incident in question makes a hash of the whole process of giving a defendant notice of his rights."

Ronald Bacigal, a criminal law professor at the University of Richmond, said he thought Horan had "a good shot" at getting MacKay's ruling overturned because it didn't appear police schemed to evade the Miranda warning and because they gave the warning moments after Kadian's outburst.

George Washington University law professor Mary Cheh agreed. "This was an off-hand comment," she said. "Who knew he would blurt that out?"

But Cheh noted that "the police have to be a bit more careful about questions that are directed toward the investigation."