Miranda v. Arizona 1966

Miranda v. Arizona 1966

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Miranda v. Arizona 1966

In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), there was an order by the Supreme Court that said detained defendants needed information on their rights to get an attorney constitutionally before the questioning. The Miranda v. Arizona case started with the arrest of a resident in Phoenix named Ernesto Miranda around 1963. He was then booked on the charges of robbery, kidnapping, and rape. At that time, the suspect (Miranda) was not conversant about his constitutional rights before the police interrogation. The interrogation between Miranda and the police took about two hours. Allegedly, Miranda admitted to having committed the wrongdoings during the interrogation that the police had recorded. He was illiterate as he had not completed his ninth grade. Additionally, he had a mental disorder history and had no counsel available. At the time of his trial, the prosecution’s case comprised only of Miranda’s confession. Ultimately, he was sentenced to the crime of kidnapping and rape hence being penalized to 20 to 30 long years in jail. Later on, Miranda appealed to the Supreme Court in Arizona, and he claimed that the law enforcement agency had executed his verdict unconstitutionally. The Court disagreed and maintained the sentence. Miranda did an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, which finally revised the case in the year 1966.

The case had several participants. The Supreme Court had chief justice, Earl Warren, within a 5-4 decision. He ruled that the prosecution team would not present Miranda’s confession as proof in a criminal trial since the police did not first let Miranda be aware of his constitutional right, get an attorney, and against self-accusation. The judge, in his participation, asserted that the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution obligated the police role in offering those warnings. It offers the suspects the right to deny being self-witness on themselves and the Sixth Amendment assures criminal offenders the constitutional right to get an attorney. The Court held that the perpetrator’s right against self-accusation has been for a long period being part of Anglo-American ruling as a method to balance the helplessness inherent in being imprisoned (Ponte Carvalho, 2017). Such kind of position, if left unchecked, might every so often result in government misuse. The perpetrator’s right to get an attorney is also a fundamental right since an attorney’s appearance during interrogations, in the view of C.J Warren, allows the accused to say his incident with no fear, efficiently, and in a manner that removes the troubles in the interrogation procedure.

Therefore, to defend those rights in the existence of a widespread unawareness of the rule, the Court planned declarations that law enforcement agencies are needed to let the defendant know who is being interrogated and detained. These compulsory “Miranda Rights” start with “the right to remain silent” and goes on the words with the usual statement of “anything said can and will be used against you in a court of law.” The law enforcement agencies are bound to inform the suspected person of their right to acquire an attorney and permit for a perpetrator’s attorney who may escort him/her at the time of interrogations (Zelechoski, 2017). Miranda Ernesto was not given any of those rights, and the “confession” was therefore unconstitutionally used at the trial. The Court also had lawyer Alvin Moore; another main person involved at the trial. He came into the case when the prosecutors gave out Miranda’s written confession as proof. Moore protested that since those facts, the declaration of guilt was not truthfully voluntary and ought to be left out. Moore was involved in filing the suspect’s appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court, asserting that Miranda’s admission was not entirely voluntary and should not have been utilized during the Court proceedings. Another participant was John Paul Frank, the Attorney, who was a former law clerk. He also represented Miranda in his appeal. The other participants were the five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court who made up the majority and merged a view put down by C.J Earl Warren. The judges ruled that since the forced nature of the questioning by police, no admission might be allowable under the Fifth Amendment’s self-accusation clause and the constitutional rights to get an attorney under the sixth amendment (Dressler, 2017). Justice Tom C. Clark, also a participant of this case, argued that C.J Earl Warren Court went a bit too far and too fast. In his place, Justice Tom Clark said he would utilize the entirety of the situations test articulated through Justice Goldberg in Haynes v. Washington.

Miranda Ernesto was re-tried in 1967 after the novel case against him was dismissed. At that period, the prosecution, as an alternative to utilizing the prior self-confession, came up with a different kind of proof and called upon witnesses. Twila Hoffman was one of the witnesses. She was a woman who used to stay with Miranda during the crime period. As a witness, she claimed that Miranda told her about committing the offense. Ernesto Miranda was sentenced in the year 1967 to 20 to 30 years in prison (Douglass, 2017). In 1972 Miranda Ernesto was paroled. He was then set free. He went back to his long-time neighborhood, and his job was to autograph police officers’ “Miranda cards” that had the text of cautioning for interpretation to arrestees. He met his death by being stabbed to death at a time of a bar argument on January 31, 1976.

Miranda v. Arizona, a legal case, resulted in the Supreme Court of the United States creating a police interrogation code of conduct for the illegal suspects detained in custody. Early Warren maintained that prosecutors could not utilize statements formed by defendants under interrogation in the custody of police lest specific minimum routine safeguards were adhered to. Warren assisted in the criminal justice system reform. He specified fresh guidelines to ensure that a suspect is given the freedom not to be forced to do self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment (Douglas, 2017). These fresh guidelines were known as the Miranda cautions. The fresh guidelines comprised informing persons arrested before interrogation that they possess the right to stay silent and that whatever they say can be utilized against them as proof. Those suspects have the right to acquire an attorney, and that in the circumstance they cannot pay for an attorney, the state will be assigned for them. In his declaration, C.J Warren declared that the law enforcement agency could not continue questioning a suspect in detention if at any phase of the process the suspect shows that he does not wish to be questioned or shows that he needs to ask an attorney. All this helped shape criminal justice reform in terms of policy processes, trial processes, and court proceedings. As these reforms took root in the ground, critics of the Miranda decision claimed that the Court’s undertaking to guard the individuals’ rights had significantly damaged law enforcement.

Reference

Douglass, D. L. (2017). Department of Justice consent decrees as the foundation for community-initiated collaborative police reform. Police Quarterly, 20(3), 322-336.

Dressler, J. (2017). Miranda v. Arizona: Be Grateful for Small Favors. Tex. Tech L. Rev., 50, 51.

Zelechoski, A. D., Wolbransky, M., & Riggs Romaine, C. L. (2018). To waive or not to waive? Miranda rights and due process.