Miranda Vs. Arizona

Miranda vs. Arizona

Aric Alias

MADJU-212-1642

Aric Alias

Professor Hausmann

MADJU-212-1642

May 14, 2016

Miranda vs. Arizona

        Born in 1941 in Mesa, Arizona, some sources say he was a Mexican immigrant, Ernesto Miranda, was an eighth-grade dropout with a criminal record; who worked as a laborer, known for being somewhat of a pervert with sexual fantasies. While he was in the eighth-grade, arrested for burglary, convicted and sent to the Arizona State Industrial School for Boys (ASISB) where he spent one year. Shortly after his release from ASISB, he moved to Los Angeles, California (Ernesto Miranda the Early Life).

        After arriving in Los Angeles, it did not take Miranda long to get in trouble again; he was arrested as a suspect in a case of armed robbery, he was held in jail for over two years while fighting to prove he was innocent of said crime. Miranda joined the Army where he spent fifteen months, six months of that time was spent in the brig at Fort Campbell, before receiving a dishonorable discharge. He became a drifter, he stole a vehicle and took it across state lines. While in Texas, he was arrested for vagrancy and transporting a stolen vehicle across state lines. He was found guilty and received a sentence of a year and a day in federal prison (Ernesto Miranda the Early Life). No one had a clue that next time Miranda was arrested it would be a milestone that would change the legal rights of all arrested and accused of a crime.

        March 13, 1963, Ernesto Miranda was arrested for kidnapping and rape, because of circumstantial evidence. After he had been placed in a lineup with three other men, he was identified by the victim, Lois Ann Jameson. He was taken to interrogation room two of the Phoenix Police Department; here he was interrogated for two hours. During this interrogation, he gave an oral confession, then asked to put it in writing. Miranda signed a confession document; it was all handwritten, except typed across the top of the confession was I made this confession with full knowledge of my legal rights, understanding any statement I make may be used against me. This was the only typed document used as evidence against him at trial; he was convicted on all counts and sentenced to two thirty year sentences that would run concurrently. The Supreme Court of the United States, upon review of the case, found the lower courts had violated  Miranda’s, a convicted kidnapper and rapist, Fifth Amendment rights against the defendant’s self-incrimination.The Supreme Court noted that the rights established by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution were fundamental to our criminal justice system. Miranda’s prior conviction was reversed, and he was granted a retrial without the admission of his handwritten confession, he was still found guilty without the use it. The sentence opposed upon Miranda remained the original two thirty year sentences; he was paroled in 1972 after serving eleven years.