SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The California Supreme Court has ruled that a suspect’s silence may be used against him.
Wading into a legally tangled vehicular manslaughter case Thursday, a sharply divided high court effectively reinstated the felony conviction of a man accused in a 2007 San Francisco Bay Area crash that left an 8-year-old girl and her sister and mother injured.
Richard Tom was sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter after authorities say he was speeding and slammed into another vehicle at a Redwood City intersection.
Prosecutors repeatedly told jurors that Tom’s failure to ask about the victims immediately after the crash showed his guilt. The Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling said Tom needed to explicitly state his right to remain silent for it to be inadmissible in court. The ruling overturned a lower court decision.
