1966
The Miranda Rights Established
On this day in 1966, the Supreme Court hands
down its decision in Miranda v. Arizona, establishing the
principle that all criminal suspects must be advised of their rights before
interrogation. Now considered standard police procedure, “You have the right to
remain silent. Anything you say can, and will, be used against you in court of
law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be
appointed to you,” has been heard so many times in television and film dramas
that it has become almost cliche.
The roots of the Miranda decision go
back to March 2, 1963, when an 18-year-old Phoenix woman told police that she
had been abducted, driven to the desert and raped. Detectives questioning her
story gave her a polygraph test, but the results were inconclusive. However,
tracking the license plate number of a car that resembled that of her
attacker’s brought police to Ernesto Miranda, who had a prior record as a
peeping tom. Although the victim did not identify Miranda in a line-up, he was
brought into police custody and interrogated. What happened next is disputed,
but officers left the interrogation with a confession that Miranda later
recanted, unaware that he didn’t have to say anything at all.
The confession was extremely brief and
differed in certain respects from the victim’s account of the crime. However,
Miranda’s appointed defense attorney (who was paid a grand total of $100)
didn’t call any witnesses at the ensuing trial, and Miranda was convicted.
While Miranda was in Arizona state prison, the American Civil Liberties Union
took up his appeal, claiming that the confession was false and coerced.
The Supreme Court overturned his conviction,
but Miranda was retried and convicted in October 1966 anyway, despite the relative
lack of evidence against him. Remaining in prison until 1972, Ernesto Miranda
was later stabbed to death in the men’s room of a bar after a poker game in
January 1976.
As a result of the case against Miranda, each
and every person must now be informed of his or her rights when arrested.