Miranda Warning Essay

One of the biggest tropes on criminal TV shows like CSI or Law and Order is having an officer tell a suspect “you have the right to remain silent, everything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...” This reading is called a Miranda warning, a verbal acknowledgement of the arrested person’s rights, which is protected under the Fifth Amendment’s right to refuse to answer incriminating questions. Some people may be mistaken in thinking that if the police do not read the suspect’s rights, the suspect can’t be charged for the crime, or that the suspect has no right to be silent, but this is not true.The Miranda Warning is a constitutional law to have a person’s rights read to them, otherwise the police waive any and all information the suspect tells them. (Miranda Rights: What Happens, 2011) Meaning, any confession or self-incriminating information a suspect gives to a police officer can not be used in a court of law without the suspects understanding of his rights to silence and an attorney. The Miranda warning is considered to be one of the most important decision in the history of the U.S. legal system, allowing an accused suspect to understand their rights while being detained.
The Miranda v. Arizona (1966) case sparked controversy after Ernesto Miranda, an Arizona man who had …show more content…
The Fifth Amendment, which offers criminal defendants certain rights, such as the right to a grand jury, the right that no one should be put on trial for the same crime twice, and the right of due process, also states that no one “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” (Fifth Amendment: an overview, 2009) This means that the accused cannot be forced to confess to a