united-states criminal-law miranda-warning
Must Cops Read Rights to Spouse?
<p>Suppose a man is arrested but then stays silent.  Can the police go and talk to his wife without reading her her Miranda rights?</p>

<p>For example, if they don't notify her of her right to stay silent and she admits (in an interrogation room, but without herself ever being suspected of a crime) that she washed blood out of his clothes, can that admission be used in court?</p>

<p>The Miranda warning only has to be given to a person being interrogated in custody, and on the premise that the wife is not in custody, the police do not need to read her the warning. Therefore, anything she says can be used against her, or somebody else, unless there is a separate reason why the statement could not be used.</p>

<p>The wife may invoke the spousal testimony privilege, in which case <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/445/40/case.html" rel="noreferrer">she cannot be compelled to testify</a> against the husband. The officer could theoretically testify that the wife said "I washed blood out of his clothing", but this is an assertion made by an out-of-court declarant to prove the truth of the question at hand, i.e. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_801" rel="noreferrer">hearsay</a>. There are numerous exceptions to the definition so that in some cases, the statement would not be hearsay. If the wife refuses to testify, that cuts out half of the exceptions, but maybe the wife is a co-conspirator.</p>

<p>If she's subject to a custodial interrogation, they're generally obligated to Mirandize her, regardless of whether she's a suspect. If they don't, that would make her statements there inadmissible in a case <em>against her</em> (for abetting or destroying evidence, for example), but I don't think it would make those statements inadmissible in a case against the husband himself.</p>
