NCJ Number
129796
Journal
Crime to Court Dated: (March 1991) Pages: 1-2
Date Published
1991
Length
2 pages
Annotation
The United States Supreme Court's decision in Minnick v. Mississippi in 1990 involved Robert Minnick's confession of a murder which he said he committed because James Dyess pointed a shotgun at him and ordered him to shoot the victim.
Abstract
Minnick and Dyess had escaped from a county jail in Mississippi in 1986. The next day they broke into a mobile home in search of weapons. The arrival of the trailer's owner and two other people interrupted the burglary. Minnick's story is that Dyess murdered one victim with a stolen weapon and forced Minnick to shoot the other. Minnick was arrested on August 22, 1986 in California on a Mississippi murder warrant. He said that the local police mistreated him during and after the arrest. Two FBI agents came to the jail to interview him the next day and read the Miranda warnings. Minnick said he understood his rights and would not sign the waiver form. He told them some details, but not what happened at the trailer. He told the agents to come back when he had a lawyer. Minnick met with an appointed attorney and spoke with him on two or three occasions. On August 25, a Mississippi deputy sheriff came to the jail to question Minnick. Minnick again declined to sign a waiver of Miranda rights. He then described the events at the mobile home.