Miranda versus Arizona

It was 1963, and Arizona resident Ernesto Miranda was at his house in Phoenix when police arrived and arrested him on charges of kidnapping and rape. For the next two hours, Mr. Miranda was questioned without pause by officers and finally agreed to sign a confession. That confession was the main piece of evidence used to successfully convict him, which made Miranda appeal the decision, saying that he was forced to confess along with being unaware of his right to avoid self-incrimination. The case became known as Miranda v Arizona, and found its way to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice of the time Earl Warren wrote the majority opinion of the Court siding with Miranda, asserting that a police arrest is "inherently stressful" and that any evidence obtained at the time of the arrest may not be entirely the suspects choice. After the Court made its decision in 1966, it was the law for all police officers to inform suspects of their legal rights at the time of the arrest, and illegal for them to interrogate suspects who invoked those rights. The statements that police now say to all suspects have become known since then as the Miranda rights, beginning with the now-familiar sentence: "You have the right to remain silent." Many take issue with the Miranda decision, claiming that it impedes justice by protecting the rights of criminals. But the decision remains firm today, as anyone who has had unplanned contact with police can attest. Unfortunately for Ernesto Miranda, he was later convicted based on other evidence and subsequently retired.