Norman Elmer Miller v. J.C. Keeney, Superintendent

On a bright warm spring Wednesday morning in downtown Portland, Oregon, nearly a decade ago, Lownsdale Park was crowded with people out walking or sitting on benches. One of the more active was Norman Elmer Miller, who had left his car near the park and was seen by the police leaving a telephone booth and walking quickly through the park in a dark overcoat and sunglasses. Also in the park were a number of Portland police officers, engaged in what would prove to be an unsuccessful race against time: They had received an anonymous telephone call threatening that a bomb would go off somewhere in the downtown area sometime that morning. As the police officers scanned the downtown telephone booths for signs of the caller; as Miller left the park and reached his car to discover that he had been followed by two officers, who patted him down, advised him of his Miranda rights, and began to question him; as other police officers frantically tried to clear the unsuspecting public out of the park; a bomb exploded in an unoccupied restroom in one corner of the park and blew the restroom to bits. The police arrested Miller, who was subsequently convicted in Oregon state court of two counts of…