Miranda Vs. Arizona

Miranda vs. Arizona:

This case had to do with an Ernest Miranda who raped a Patty McGee*. After extracting a written confession from the rapist about the situation, Miranda's lawyer argued that it was not valid since the Phoenix Police Department failed to read Miranda his rights, also in violation of the Sixth Amendment which is the right to counsel. Some factors that helped support Miranda's arguments were that the suspect had requested and been denied an opportunity to consult with a lawyer; the suspect had not been effectively warned about his right to remain silent; and an incriminating statement must have been given by the suspect. The author of the Arizona court's decision, former U.S. Senator and Arizona governor Ernest W. McFarland, said that Miranda had not requested a lawyer at the time of his detention and therefore was not entitled to the protections offered by such thins as in the Escobedo vs. Illinois case.

Two months after the nation's highest court agreed to hear arguments in the case of Miranda vs. Arizona, John Flynn and John Frank submitted their outline of the case and legal arguments in support of their position. They continued their argument that Ernest Miranda's Sixth Amendment right to counsel had been violated by the Phoenix Police Department: "The day is here to recognize the full meaning of the Sixth Amendment," they wrote. "We invoke the basic principles (that) Ð''he requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step in the proceedings against him.' When Miranda stepped into Interrogation Room 2, he had only the guiding hand of Officers Cooley and Young."

Because of the four other cases tied to Miranda and the large number of amicus briefs filed in the case, a second day of oral arguments followed on March 1. That day, the justices honed in on the Fifth Amendment aspects of the case, which pleased John Flynn to no end. The last man to present a position in the case before the court was Thurgood Marshall, whose personal opinions were diametrically opposed to the position of his employer, the U.S. government.

Once the arguments were done, there was nothing left to do but wait as the justices debated the issue among themselves and issued a written opinion, probably in four or five months. The traditional process called for the justices to listen to oral arguments on Monday through Thursday,