WHEN DO MIRANDA RIGHTS APPLY?
They apply to testimonial evidence that has been obtained while you are in custody and when that evidence results from a law enforcement investigation. Also, these rights do not apply to your interactions with private citizens but instead apply to law enforcement interactions. This means that if you are in a holding cell and an informant or jailhouse snitch gets you to speak, then your response might be lawfully used against you. For example, law enforcement can place an informant in your cell to elicit a confession from you.
Another important point about Miranda rights is that they only apply to testimonial evidence. This means that your right to remain silent concerns your statements or documents instead of samples of your handwriting, voice, fingerprints, or DNA (e.g., hair or saliva). Furthermore, Miranda rights are not applicable when you volunteer information if you are not actually in custody and subject to interrogation. This means that law enforcement might confront you at your home for information. Your volunteered or unsolicited statements might be used against you if you are later arrested and charged with an offense. Also, if you are in custody and have asserted your Miranda rights, then uttering something incriminating after asserting those rights could be construed as volunteering information, negating the whole point of asserting your rights to get your attorney involved before you do anything that could worsen your position. Relatedly, if you confess something to law enforcement before asserting your Miranda rights but after you are Mirandized, then that statement might be used against you at trial unless the evidence is suppressed on other grounds.
Lastly, a confession that law enforcement seemingly obtains from you in violation of your Miranda rights still might be admissible and used against you at trial in some rare circumstances. Specifically, your statement might be admissible if it is obtained during a clear and present danger to public safety where law enforcement reasonably believes that your statement is necessary to resolve that emergency. In Florida, the prosecutor might be able to use your statement against you if you testify at trial and say something that contradicts your earlier statements or confession.
