Miranda V. Arizona - the Defining of the Miranda Rights

RUNNING HEAD: Miranda Rights

Miranda v. Arizona: The Defining of the Miranda Rights

Daniel Higgins

September 5th, 2009

Kaplan University

CJ101-08AU

Professor Myers

Miranda v. Arizona: The Defining of the Miranda Rights

June 13th, 1966 was a defining day in the history of United States freedom and rights. On this day, it was decided that Miranda’s case against Arizona would be judged in her favor. This was the day that the United States passed the Miranda Rights law into the constitution, which allows United States citizens a set of rights to protect themselves from self-incrimination. The three main parts to the Miranda Rights are a person’s right to remain silent, right to an attorney and right to a public attorney if they cannot afford one.

The Miranda Rights are very important to citizens of this country, because if a person does not want to answer a police officer’s questions without some sort of defense lawyer sitting with him, he shouldn’t have too. While this was an important note of the Miranda Rights, the biggest was by far the demanding of a lawyer, whether or not the defendant can afford one. Before the Miranda Rights passed people would have to defend themselves in court if they could not afford a lawyer. This almost always ended up badly, because the district attorney knows the courts inside and out, where as a suspect probably has a lack of knowledge when it involves court-speak. Therefore, innocent people where going to jail because they could not defend themselves “properly” about a crime that they didn’t commit (Times, 1976).

In a nutshell, the Miranda V. Arizona case consisted of consolidated cases (Westover V. United States, Vignera V. NewYork, California V. Stewart) and fought that people being questioned, detained or arrested by police officers should be informed of their constitutional rights to an attorney and the right to remain silent. The case also made an impact on the rights to avoid self-incrimination. Ernesto Miranda...