On June 13, 1966, the U.S. 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 a
fford one, one will be appointed to you,” has been heard so many times in television and film dramas that it has become almost cliché.
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,
a laborer 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.
Ernesto Arturo Miranda
(March 9, 1941 – January 31, 1976)
