 Although giving " sporadic " comments during the interview , no answers had been given that touched upon the case . The Court had not previously considered " whether a suspect can invoke the right to remain silent by remaining uncooperative and nearly silent for 2 hours and 45 minutes " and the dissent considered that silence throughout a lengthy interrogation " long past the point when he could be deciding whether to respond [ , ] cannot reasonably be understood other than as an invocation of the right to remain silent " . Butler also distinguished between a " sufficient course of conduct " and mere " inculpatory statements " . 
