Miranda Warning

Grant Reeg

Professor Gloekler

Intro to Admin of Justice

8, November 2016

Miranda Warning

        If you have ever watched a show about police investigations like “Law and Order” or “CSI”, then you probably have heard one of the detectives or police tell a suspect their Miranda Rights.  Those four sentences are considered to be one of the most important things a person under arrest is told.  Yet back in 1963 these rights were not so important as they are today.  In today’s criminal justice system if you do not inform a person under arrest or in police custody of their rights before an interrogation, the events that occur during any form of questioning will be invalid.  Therefore, not useable in a criminal trial.  Which in my opinion this would be very frustrating for the prosecution and the victims of the crime.

        In 1963, a rape and kidnapping victim identified Ernesto Miranda out of a police lineup in Phoenix, Arizona.  Detectives questioned Miranda for two hours about the crime.  Yet the detectives never mentioned that Mr. Miranda had the right to have legal counsel with him during the interrogation.  After the two long hours, the detectives came out of the interrogation with a win.  A signed confession by Mr. Miranda stating he committed the crimes.  It was an open and shut case.  Easy as it can get.  Ernesto Miranda was sentenced twenty to thirty years in prison by the Arizona Supreme Court.  Then the open and shut case took a turn.  In 1966, Mr. Miranda appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming that he was never told his rights to have attorney present and that any statement he made could be used against him.  At this point, that win for the prosecution began to fade. 

        The U.S. Supreme Court referred to the Fifth amendment that states the protection against self-incrimination and the right to have legal aid.  Due to the detectives not informing Mr. Miranda of these rights the court overturned the conviction.   “The court stated that police interrogations are, by their nature, coercive and therefore deny suspects their constitutional right against self-incrimination by “forcing” them to confess.” (Miranda v. Arizona, Chapter 6) The Supreme court put into effect that when a person is taken into police custody the police have the obligation to inform the suspect in custody of their rights.  These rights are now known today as the Miranda Rights due to this case and its verdict.