Miranda Rights by New Hampshire Lawyer Mark Stevens 603-893-0074

Know your rights, and exercise them! You have the right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer when the police interrogate you. This page deals with the rights clarified by the landmark United States Supreme Court 1966 decision of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436. Ernesto Miranda (Miranda's booking photo is on the left) was a laborer whose Arizona state convictions for kidnapping, rape and armed robbery became the subject of the landmark Miranda case in the United States Supreme Court.

The Miranda case shortly followed the case of Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 (1964) in which the Supreme Court ruled that a citizen had the right to counsel during police questioning. Concerns had come to light about police interrogation tactics, colloquially known as "the third degree" at the time.

The Miranda decision followed Escobedo two years later. In Miranda's case, the United States Supreme Court held that both inculpatory and exculpatory statements made in response to interrogation by a defendant in police custody will be admissible at trial only if the prosecution can show that the defendant was informed of the right to consult with an attorney before and during questioning and of the right against self-incrimination prior to questioning by police, and that the defendant not only understood these rights, but voluntarily waived them. The decision was a close 5-4 split and two sharp dissents were written.

The right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer before and during questioning are the two primary components of the Court's Miranda decision, and people arrested must be advised of these two important rights before the police can interrogate them after their arrest.

Ernesto Miranda's mug shot is to the left.

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