June 28, 2025 • 18 mins
HISTORY
This is how the Miranda Warning became law in the United States.
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This is how the Miranda Warning became law in the United States.
Our Regular Merch Hosted by FourthWall! : https://thisismonsters.com/
GTFOH Doormats : https://this-is-monsters.printify.me/
Socials:
LinkTree : https://linktr.ee/thisismonsters
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thisis_monsters/
Threads : https://www.threads.net/@thisis_monsters
My other shows:
This is Monsters YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@thisisMONSTERS
Vlog : https://www.youtube.com/@jileswithaj
Somewhere Sinister Podcast :
Somewhere Sinister YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@SomewhereSinister
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the United States, you have the right to remain silent.
You also have the right to consult an attorney. But
more importantly, if you're arrested, you have the right to
know that you have the right to remain silent and
to consult an attorney. Those rights have always existed to Americans,
as having been established by the fifth and sixth Amendments
(00:21):
to the Constitution. It wasn't until nineteen sixty six that
it was made law that anyone placed under arrest or
being questioned by the police had to be informed of
those rights. The process of reading a perp their rights
became known as a Miranda warning, and that name was
not pulled out of thin air. On March thirteenth, nineteen
(00:43):
sixty three, Ernesto Miranda voluntarily went to the Phoenix Police
station with two officers. There, he was interrogated for two
hours before confessing to the kidnap and sexual assault of
eighteen year old Patricia Weir, along with other crimes. On
the top of each page of his handwritten confession was
(01:03):
displayed quote, this statement has been made voluntarily and of
my own free will, with no threats, coercion, or promises
of immunity, and with full knowledge of my legal rights,
understanding any statement I make can and will be used
against me. It seemed like a pretty airtight case, with
a signed confession along with a disclaimer that Ernesto had
(01:26):
full knowledge of his rights. The problem was that he didn't.
The officers had never explained his rights to him, He
didn't know that he could have an attorney present, and
he didn't know that he could remain silent, And him
simply saying he knew his rights was not good enough.
He would ultimately lead to his conviction being overturned and
(01:47):
the Supreme Court creating what we know now as the
Miranda Warning. Now, there are a few misconceptions about Miranda
(02:20):
via Arizona that tend to linger in the collective knowledge
of the case. The first was that the Supreme Court
ruling gave US citizens the right to remain silent and
to consult an attorney, but those rights already existed. That
important case was simply about making sure any person being
questioned by the authorities knew they had those rights. The
(02:43):
second is that Ernesto Miranda was innocent and that the appeal,
based on the fact that he was not made aware
of his rights, created some sort of justice for him.
But the truth is Ernesto was in fact guilty. He
had not given a false confession, and he was rightly
found guilty as he was a horrible person who had
committed many crimes on top of the sexual assault. He
(03:05):
just happened to be the person that kicked off the
argument that there should be a law in the books
to ensure law enforcement were advising suspects of their rights.
Eighteen year old Patricia Weir worked selling concessions at the
Paramount Theater in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. She finished her shift
just before midnight on March second, nineteen sixty three, and
(03:27):
walked with a coworker to a bus stop a few
blocks away. She got off the bus near her home
and began walking, but soon a car pulled up and
a man got out. She continued on, surprised when the
man grabbed her from behind and said, quote, if you
don't scream, I won't hurt you. Then he threw her
(03:47):
into the back seat of his car and tied her
wrists and ankles with rope. He drove twenty minutes out
into the desert, where he untied Patricia and sexually assaulted her.
Then He drove her back to her neighborhood and let
her out of the car, saying quote pray for me.
Patricia returned to her home where she lived with her mother,
her sister, and her sister's husband. She told her sister
(04:11):
what had just happened. They immediately called the police authorities,
took a statement and arranged for a medical examination. There
wasn't a lot of information to go on, and it
didn't seem like the police were going to find the attacker.
After that, Patricia's brother in law would meet her at
the bus stop when she got out of work late,
(04:32):
and one day he saw a car that matched the
description of the one the attacker drove, a nineteen fifty
three packered for door, so he wrote down the license
plate number. When he gave it to the police, they
found it was registered to a woman named Twila Hoffman,
and she lived with a man named Ernesto Miranda. Ernesto
(04:53):
Miranda was born on March ninth, nineteen forty one, in Masa, Arizona.
Ernesto started getting into trouble early in life, and that
was compounded when his mother died when he was only
six years old. His father remarried and Ernesto did not
get along with his father or stepmother, ultimately being convicted
of burglary in the eighth grade, which got him sent
(05:14):
to a reform school. He was released a few years later,
only to get in trouble a month later and be
sent back. After his second release, he moved to Los Angeles, California,
but he did not quit breaking the law, so after
multiple arrests for armed robbery and sexual assault, he was
extradited back to Arizona. At that time, he joined the
(05:37):
US Army in an attempt to straighten out his life.
All of his siblings had joined the service, so he
followed suit. After basic training, he was stationed at Fort
Campbell in Kentucky, but soon he was arrested for voyeurism.
After a six month sentence, he was dishonorably discharged. He
spent the next few years wandering the South, where he
(05:59):
spent time behind bars in Texas and Tennessee. He spent
time in federal prison for driving a stolen car across
stay lines. After his release in nineteen sixty one, or
Nesto began a relationship with a woman named Twila Hoffman
and stayed out of trouble for a few years. Twila
had two children from a previous marriage, and she was
(06:22):
technically still married to that man, though many sources reference
her as Ernesto's common law wife. The couple ended up
having another child while living together in Mesa. It seemed
that Ernsto wasn't able to stay on the straight and
narrow for long, though, because it was in late nineteen
sixty two that he started hunting for a victim. There
(06:44):
were a number of close calls with other young women,
but on March second, nineteen sixty three, he attacked Patricia
Weir and she reported it to the police. Investigators had
tracked her Nesto to the home where he lived with
Twila and the three children. When they arrived at two
ten North le Baron Street in Mesa, though they found
(07:04):
it vacant, the next door neighbor told them that the
couple and their children had moved out a few days prior.
The neighbor said that they used a truck from Arnsto's
employer to do the moving. The detectives checked with the employer,
but they didn't have her Nesto's new address. Their next
stop was to an area post office who had a
(07:25):
change of address. Card on file, and the detectives were
able to get the new address at twenty five twenty
five Mariposa Street in Phoenix. They arrived to find a
nineteen fifty three packard sitting in the driveway. When they
looked in the window, the interior was just as Patricia
had described it. After knocking on the door, the detectives
(07:48):
aster Nesto to come to the station with them, and
he agreed. You would later be claimed that. While driving
to the station, one of the detectives told Ernsto, quote,
you know, you don't have to tell talk to us
if you don't want to. Of course, most people don't
confess to a crime right away. They deny it at first,
(08:08):
but after being shown evidence and realizing it looks bad
for them, they make a confession, usually hoping it will
get them some leniency with sentencing. This case was no different.
In the middle of the interrogation, Ernesto was presented to
Patricia in a lineup, and though she said he looked
like the attacker, she couldn't be one hundred percent sure.
(08:31):
The investigators took Ernsto back into the interrogation room and
continued interviewing him. Once they got back into the room.
Ernesto finally confessed to the sexual assault of Patricia Weir,
as well as a few other crimes. The detectives then
brought Patricia into the room and asked her Nesto if
he knew her. He said yes and stated that she
(08:53):
was the woman he had sexually assaulted. From there, investigators
searched the vehicle Ernesto had been dry, where they found
a small length of rope in the trunk, and they
reviewed Patricia's medical examination, which showed that seamen had been
found inside of her. The evidence and the confession were
sent to the prosecutor's office. The case at that point
(09:14):
was not in the public eye. It was a local
crime where the perpetrator was arrested and taken to trial
in pretty standard form. Nobody could have expected the case
would go on to change the laws. The defense questioned
one of the detectives about whether or not he read
or Nesto his rights. Found ly, that doesn't mean the
subject of Ernesto's rights didn't come up at that trial. Though.
(09:38):
The defense questioned one of the detectives about whether or
not he read or Nesto his rights. The detective pointed
out the statement at the top of each page, the
one that said the defendant understood their rights. But the
lawyer pointed out that the notes of the interrogation didn't
describe anywhere that he had actually been read his rights.
The detective stated openly that he didn't normally read suspects
(10:01):
their rights. The lawyer suggested that the confession shouldn't be
an evidence, but the judge overruled him because, based on
the way police questioning worked at the time, not reading
a suspect their rights was pretty common. Because of that,
Ernesto Miranda was found guilty and sentenced to twenty to
thirty years in prison for the sexual assault of Patricia
(10:23):
Weir that would run concurrently with the twenty to thirty
year sentence he had received for other crimes he had
confessed to. Ernesto filed an appeal after his conviction, but
it was denied by the Arizona Supreme Court. Eventually, the
Phoenix branch of the American Civil Liberties Union took the
case and started working toward an appeal. They knew that
(10:46):
the U. S. Supreme Court had recently ruled in favor
of a number of other cases that dealt with the
denial of constitutional rights during the process of arrest and questioning.
They'd been looking for a case they could use to
pass a law that insured suspects. Knew that the right
to counsel, and Ernesto's case was perfect. They used those
previous cases as a template to appeal the case of
(11:08):
Miranda vi. Arizona. But most people don't know that that
wasn't the only case the Supreme Court looked at. After
the ACLU filed an appeal to Ernesto's case, the Supreme
Court combined it with three other cases, Thegnera v. New York,
Stuart v. California, and Westover v. United States, all of
(11:29):
which were cases where the subject had not been read
their rights before talking to the authorities. The Supreme Court stated, quote,
there can be no doubt that the Fifth Amendment privilege
is available outside of criminal court proceedings and serves to
protect persons in all settings in which their freedom of
action is curtailed in any significant way from being compelled
(11:50):
to incriminate themselves. As such, the prosecution may not use statements,
whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodia interrogation of the
defendant unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective
to secure the privilege against self incrimination. By custodial interrogation,
(12:10):
we mean questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a
person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of
his freedom of action in any significant way. Without proper safeguards,
the process of in custody interrogation of persons suspected or
accused of crime contains inherently compelling pressures which work to
undermine the individual's will to resist and compel him to
(12:34):
speak where he would not otherwise do so freely. Therefore,
a defendant must be warned prior to any questioning that
he has the right to remain silent, that anything he
says can be used against him in a court of law,
that he has the right to the presence of an attorney,
and that if he cannot afford an attorney, one will
be appointed for him prior to any questioning if he
(12:55):
so desires. With that the US Supreme Court or reversed
Ernesto Miranda's conviction. From that point on, all law enforcement
agencies in the United States were required to read anyone
they were going to hold and interview a miranda warning.
It specifically applies when a person is placed under arrest
(13:16):
or when they are being detained for questioning, meaning they
aren't free to leave. If you are interviewed by the police,
but free to leave at any time, they don't need
to give you a miranda warning. It has evolved over
the years and currently goes like this. You have the
right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will
be used against you in a court of law. You
(13:39):
have the right to the presence of an attorney to
assist you prior to questioning, and to be with you
during questioning if you so desire. If you cannot afford
an attorney, you have the right to an attorney appointed
for you prior to questioning. Do you understand these rights?
Not only do you need to be made aware of
your rights to be made aware that should you choose
(14:02):
to speak, that can be used against you in court,
you also have to be informed that if you can't
afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. That's
because many people might understand that they have the right
to an attorney, but might assume they have to pay
for them and can't afford one, so they talk to
investigators without one, and most importantly, you have to have
(14:24):
understood those rights. It's not enough to blurt out the
warning and move on. The officer has to confirm that
you understood those rights. That's how a Miranda warning works today,
and it's all based on a rapist from Arizona. Of course,
Ernesto's conviction was reversed, but he was not free. He
(14:44):
was retried where his confession was not used as evidence,
but Twila Hoffman testified that he had told her he
had committed the sexual assault, and he was found guilty
once again. Like I said at the beginning of the episode,
he was in fact guilty. He was sentenced to twenty
to thirty years in prison, just like his first trial.
(15:05):
He was released on parole in nineteen seventy two and
began selling autographed Miranda warning cards for a dollar fifty apiece.
He was arrested a few times for minor traffic offenses,
but never for anything serious. On January thirty first, nineteen
seventy six, Ernesto was at the lawnm Pola Bar in
Phoenix playing poker when another patron accused him of cheating.
(15:29):
A fight erupted and Ernesto was stabbed multiple times. He
was rushed to the hospital where he died from his wounds.
Ernesto Miranda would have been nothing but a barely noticeable
stain on US history. He offered no benefit to society
and most likely would have been a completely anonymous devian
who lived a short criminal life and was forgotten. Chance
(15:52):
brought him to the Phoenix police station, where he wasn't
informed of his rights, something that had been done to
countless suspects before him. Chance again put his case in
front of the ACLU, who used it to create one
of the most well recognized collection of sentences in US history.
Not only that, but the very statement that would be
made by law enforcement in real life, along with television
(16:15):
and movies, was named after him. The name Miranda will
live on not due to any of his good deeds,
but the one good thing that came from his bad deeds.
If you're the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out
to someone for help. Please talk to your local shelter,
call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred
(16:35):
seven nine nine safe that's one eight hundred seven nine
nine seven two three three, or you can go to
the hotline dot org. To chat with someone online. If
you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone else, or
even just need someone to talk to, please contact your
local mental health facility call nine one one, or call
the National Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing nine eight
(16:57):
eight in the United States the twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week, and we'll talk to you about
any mental health issue you might be facing. If you're
a member of the LGBTQ plus community and suffering from discrimination, depression,
or are in need of any support, please contact the
lgbt National Hotline at one eight eight eight eight four
(17:18):
three four five six four, or go to LGBT hootline
dot org. Thanks so much for letting me tell you
this story. If you're a fan of true crime, you
can subscribe to this show so you don't miss an episode.
My other show, Somewhere Sinister is no longer getting new episodes,
but you can check it out if you like interesting
stories from history that aren't necessarily true crime, but true
(17:39):
crime adjacent. It's available anywhere that you listen to podcasts.
You can also check out my personal vlog, Giles with
a Jay, which is sporadically updated with stuff about my
personal life, travel and music. It's available on YouTube. If
you'd like to support the show, check out our merchandise
at thisismonsters dot com. A link is in the description.
(17:59):
Thence again and be safe.
In the United States, you have the right to remain silent.
You also have the right to consult an attorney. But
more importantly, if you're arrested, you have the right to
know that you have the right to remain silent and
to consult an attorney. Those rights have always existed to Americans,
as having been established by the fifth and sixth Amendments
(00:21):
to the Constitution. It wasn't until nineteen sixty six that
it was made law that anyone placed under arrest or
being questioned by the police had to be informed of
those rights. The process of reading a perp their rights
became known as a Miranda warning, and that name was
not pulled out of thin air. On March thirteenth, nineteen
(00:43):
sixty three, Ernesto Miranda voluntarily went to the Phoenix Police
station with two officers. There, he was interrogated for two
hours before confessing to the kidnap and sexual assault of
eighteen year old Patricia Weir, along with other crimes. On
the top of each page of his handwritten confession was
(01:03):
displayed quote, this statement has been made voluntarily and of
my own free will, with no threats, coercion, or promises
of immunity, and with full knowledge of my legal rights,
understanding any statement I make can and will be used
against me. It seemed like a pretty airtight case, with
a signed confession along with a disclaimer that Ernesto had
(01:26):
full knowledge of his rights. The problem was that he didn't.
The officers had never explained his rights to him, He
didn't know that he could have an attorney present, and
he didn't know that he could remain silent, And him
simply saying he knew his rights was not good enough.
He would ultimately lead to his conviction being overturned and
(01:47):
the Supreme Court creating what we know now as the
Miranda Warning. Now, there are a few misconceptions about Miranda
(02:20):
via Arizona that tend to linger in the collective knowledge
of the case. The first was that the Supreme Court
ruling gave US citizens the right to remain silent and
to consult an attorney, but those rights already existed. That
important case was simply about making sure any person being
questioned by the authorities knew they had those rights. The
(02:43):
second is that Ernesto Miranda was innocent and that the appeal,
based on the fact that he was not made aware
of his rights, created some sort of justice for him.
But the truth is Ernesto was in fact guilty. He
had not given a false confession, and he was rightly
found guilty as he was a horrible person who had
committed many crimes on top of the sexual assault. He
(03:05):
just happened to be the person that kicked off the
argument that there should be a law in the books
to ensure law enforcement were advising suspects of their rights.
Eighteen year old Patricia Weir worked selling concessions at the
Paramount Theater in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. She finished her shift
just before midnight on March second, nineteen sixty three, and
(03:27):
walked with a coworker to a bus stop a few
blocks away. She got off the bus near her home
and began walking, but soon a car pulled up and
a man got out. She continued on, surprised when the
man grabbed her from behind and said, quote, if you
don't scream, I won't hurt you. Then he threw her
(03:47):
into the back seat of his car and tied her
wrists and ankles with rope. He drove twenty minutes out
into the desert, where he untied Patricia and sexually assaulted her.
Then He drove her back to her neighborhood and let
her out of the car, saying quote pray for me.
Patricia returned to her home where she lived with her mother,
her sister, and her sister's husband. She told her sister
(04:11):
what had just happened. They immediately called the police authorities,
took a statement and arranged for a medical examination. There
wasn't a lot of information to go on, and it
didn't seem like the police were going to find the attacker.
After that, Patricia's brother in law would meet her at
the bus stop when she got out of work late,
(04:32):
and one day he saw a car that matched the
description of the one the attacker drove, a nineteen fifty
three packered for door, so he wrote down the license
plate number. When he gave it to the police, they
found it was registered to a woman named Twila Hoffman,
and she lived with a man named Ernesto Miranda. Ernesto
(04:53):
Miranda was born on March ninth, nineteen forty one, in Masa, Arizona.
Ernesto started getting into trouble early in life, and that
was compounded when his mother died when he was only
six years old. His father remarried and Ernesto did not
get along with his father or stepmother, ultimately being convicted
of burglary in the eighth grade, which got him sent
(05:14):
to a reform school. He was released a few years later,
only to get in trouble a month later and be
sent back. After his second release, he moved to Los Angeles, California,
but he did not quit breaking the law, so after
multiple arrests for armed robbery and sexual assault, he was
extradited back to Arizona. At that time, he joined the
(05:37):
US Army in an attempt to straighten out his life.
All of his siblings had joined the service, so he
followed suit. After basic training, he was stationed at Fort
Campbell in Kentucky, but soon he was arrested for voyeurism.
After a six month sentence, he was dishonorably discharged. He
spent the next few years wandering the South, where he
(05:59):
spent time behind bars in Texas and Tennessee. He spent
time in federal prison for driving a stolen car across
stay lines. After his release in nineteen sixty one, or
Nesto began a relationship with a woman named Twila Hoffman
and stayed out of trouble for a few years. Twila
had two children from a previous marriage, and she was
(06:22):
technically still married to that man, though many sources reference
her as Ernesto's common law wife. The couple ended up
having another child while living together in Mesa. It seemed
that Ernsto wasn't able to stay on the straight and
narrow for long, though, because it was in late nineteen
sixty two that he started hunting for a victim. There
(06:44):
were a number of close calls with other young women,
but on March second, nineteen sixty three, he attacked Patricia
Weir and she reported it to the police. Investigators had
tracked her Nesto to the home where he lived with
Twila and the three children. When they arrived at two
ten North le Baron Street in Mesa, though they found
(07:04):
it vacant, the next door neighbor told them that the
couple and their children had moved out a few days prior.
The neighbor said that they used a truck from Arnsto's
employer to do the moving. The detectives checked with the employer,
but they didn't have her Nesto's new address. Their next
stop was to an area post office who had a
(07:25):
change of address. Card on file, and the detectives were
able to get the new address at twenty five twenty
five Mariposa Street in Phoenix. They arrived to find a
nineteen fifty three packard sitting in the driveway. When they
looked in the window, the interior was just as Patricia
had described it. After knocking on the door, the detectives
(07:48):
aster Nesto to come to the station with them, and
he agreed. You would later be claimed that. While driving
to the station, one of the detectives told Ernsto, quote,
you know, you don't have to tell talk to us
if you don't want to. Of course, most people don't
confess to a crime right away. They deny it at first,
(08:08):
but after being shown evidence and realizing it looks bad
for them, they make a confession, usually hoping it will
get them some leniency with sentencing. This case was no different.
In the middle of the interrogation, Ernesto was presented to
Patricia in a lineup, and though she said he looked
like the attacker, she couldn't be one hundred percent sure.
(08:31):
The investigators took Ernsto back into the interrogation room and
continued interviewing him. Once they got back into the room.
Ernesto finally confessed to the sexual assault of Patricia Weir,
as well as a few other crimes. The detectives then
brought Patricia into the room and asked her Nesto if
he knew her. He said yes and stated that she
(08:53):
was the woman he had sexually assaulted. From there, investigators
searched the vehicle Ernesto had been dry, where they found
a small length of rope in the trunk, and they
reviewed Patricia's medical examination, which showed that seamen had been
found inside of her. The evidence and the confession were
sent to the prosecutor's office. The case at that point
(09:14):
was not in the public eye. It was a local
crime where the perpetrator was arrested and taken to trial
in pretty standard form. Nobody could have expected the case
would go on to change the laws. The defense questioned
one of the detectives about whether or not he read
or Nesto his rights. Found ly, that doesn't mean the
subject of Ernesto's rights didn't come up at that trial. Though.
(09:38):
The defense questioned one of the detectives about whether or
not he read or Nesto his rights. The detective pointed
out the statement at the top of each page, the
one that said the defendant understood their rights. But the
lawyer pointed out that the notes of the interrogation didn't
describe anywhere that he had actually been read his rights.
The detective stated openly that he didn't normally read suspects
(10:01):
their rights. The lawyer suggested that the confession shouldn't be
an evidence, but the judge overruled him because, based on
the way police questioning worked at the time, not reading
a suspect their rights was pretty common. Because of that,
Ernesto Miranda was found guilty and sentenced to twenty to
thirty years in prison for the sexual assault of Patricia
(10:23):
Weir that would run concurrently with the twenty to thirty
year sentence he had received for other crimes he had
confessed to. Ernesto filed an appeal after his conviction, but
it was denied by the Arizona Supreme Court. Eventually, the
Phoenix branch of the American Civil Liberties Union took the
case and started working toward an appeal. They knew that
(10:46):
the U. S. Supreme Court had recently ruled in favor
of a number of other cases that dealt with the
denial of constitutional rights during the process of arrest and questioning.
They'd been looking for a case they could use to
pass a law that insured suspects. Knew that the right
to counsel, and Ernesto's case was perfect. They used those
previous cases as a template to appeal the case of
(11:08):
Miranda vi. Arizona. But most people don't know that that
wasn't the only case the Supreme Court looked at. After
the ACLU filed an appeal to Ernesto's case, the Supreme
Court combined it with three other cases, Thegnera v. New York,
Stuart v. California, and Westover v. United States, all of
(11:29):
which were cases where the subject had not been read
their rights before talking to the authorities. The Supreme Court stated, quote,
there can be no doubt that the Fifth Amendment privilege
is available outside of criminal court proceedings and serves to
protect persons in all settings in which their freedom of
action is curtailed in any significant way from being compelled
(11:50):
to incriminate themselves. As such, the prosecution may not use statements,
whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodia interrogation of the
defendant unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective
to secure the privilege against self incrimination. By custodial interrogation,
(12:10):
we mean questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a
person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of
his freedom of action in any significant way. Without proper safeguards,
the process of in custody interrogation of persons suspected or
accused of crime contains inherently compelling pressures which work to
undermine the individual's will to resist and compel him to
(12:34):
speak where he would not otherwise do so freely. Therefore,
a defendant must be warned prior to any questioning that
he has the right to remain silent, that anything he
says can be used against him in a court of law,
that he has the right to the presence of an attorney,
and that if he cannot afford an attorney, one will
be appointed for him prior to any questioning if he
(12:55):
so desires. With that the US Supreme Court or reversed
Ernesto Miranda's conviction. From that point on, all law enforcement
agencies in the United States were required to read anyone
they were going to hold and interview a miranda warning.
It specifically applies when a person is placed under arrest
(13:16):
or when they are being detained for questioning, meaning they
aren't free to leave. If you are interviewed by the police,
but free to leave at any time, they don't need
to give you a miranda warning. It has evolved over
the years and currently goes like this. You have the
right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will
be used against you in a court of law. You
(13:39):
have the right to the presence of an attorney to
assist you prior to questioning, and to be with you
during questioning if you so desire. If you cannot afford
an attorney, you have the right to an attorney appointed
for you prior to questioning. Do you understand these rights?
Not only do you need to be made aware of
your rights to be made aware that should you choose
(14:02):
to speak, that can be used against you in court,
you also have to be informed that if you can't
afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. That's
because many people might understand that they have the right
to an attorney, but might assume they have to pay
for them and can't afford one, so they talk to
investigators without one, and most importantly, you have to have
(14:24):
understood those rights. It's not enough to blurt out the
warning and move on. The officer has to confirm that
you understood those rights. That's how a Miranda warning works today,
and it's all based on a rapist from Arizona. Of course,
Ernesto's conviction was reversed, but he was not free. He
(14:44):
was retried where his confession was not used as evidence,
but Twila Hoffman testified that he had told her he
had committed the sexual assault, and he was found guilty
once again. Like I said at the beginning of the episode,
he was in fact guilty. He was sentenced to twenty
to thirty years in prison, just like his first trial.
(15:05):
He was released on parole in nineteen seventy two and
began selling autographed Miranda warning cards for a dollar fifty apiece.
He was arrested a few times for minor traffic offenses,
but never for anything serious. On January thirty first, nineteen
seventy six, Ernesto was at the lawnm Pola Bar in
Phoenix playing poker when another patron accused him of cheating.
(15:29):
A fight erupted and Ernesto was stabbed multiple times. He
was rushed to the hospital where he died from his wounds.
Ernesto Miranda would have been nothing but a barely noticeable
stain on US history. He offered no benefit to society
and most likely would have been a completely anonymous devian
who lived a short criminal life and was forgotten. Chance
(15:52):
brought him to the Phoenix police station, where he wasn't
informed of his rights, something that had been done to
countless suspects before him. Chance again put his case in
front of the ACLU, who used it to create one
of the most well recognized collection of sentences in US history.
Not only that, but the very statement that would be
made by law enforcement in real life, along with television
(16:15):
and movies, was named after him. The name Miranda will
live on not due to any of his good deeds,
but the one good thing that came from his bad deeds.
If you're the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out
to someone for help. Please talk to your local shelter,
call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred
(16:35):
seven nine nine safe that's one eight hundred seven nine
nine seven two three three, or you can go to
the hotline dot org. To chat with someone online. If
you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone else, or
even just need someone to talk to, please contact your
local mental health facility call nine one one, or call
the National Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing nine eight
(16:57):
eight in the United States the twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week, and we'll talk to you about
any mental health issue you might be facing. If you're
a member of the LGBTQ plus community and suffering from discrimination, depression,
or are in need of any support, please contact the
lgbt National Hotline at one eight eight eight eight four
(17:18):
three four five six four, or go to LGBT hootline
dot org. Thanks so much for letting me tell you
this story. If you're a fan of true crime, you
can subscribe to this show so you don't miss an episode.
My other show, Somewhere Sinister is no longer getting new episodes,
but you can check it out if you like interesting
stories from history that aren't necessarily true crime, but true
(17:39):
crime adjacent. It's available anywhere that you listen to podcasts.
You can also check out my personal vlog, Giles with
a Jay, which is sporadically updated with stuff about my
personal life, travel and music. It's available on YouTube. If
you'd like to support the show, check out our merchandise
at thisismonsters dot com. A link is in the description.
(17:59):
Thence again and be safe.
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