Marcus Perez, Petitioner/cross-Respondent v. the People of the State of Colorado, Respondent/cross-Petitioner.

Summary

The court held that the public-safety exception to Miranda applied when an officer asked Perez, who had just been apprehended after a lengthy and violent flight and was found carrying live shotgun shells, where the gun was. Because the question was reasonably prompted by an objectively reasonable need to protect the public from an immediate danger, the officer was not required to give Miranda warnings, and admitting Perez’s response was not constitutional error. The court vacated the contrary portion of the court of appeals’ reasoning but otherwise affirmed the judgment of conviction.