50th anniversary of “right to remain silent”
An arrest in Arizona 50 years ago that led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision is the subject of an exhibit in Phoenix that includes the handwritten confession famously thrown out by the nation’s highest court.
The warning from police that suspects have the right to remain silent sprang, in part, from the arrest of Ernesto Miranda on March 13, 1963.
Miranda was convicted of kidnapping and raping an 18-year-old woman in Phoenix. But the Supreme Court concluded that his rights against self-incrimination and to have an attorney present in the interrogation room weren’t protected.
The exhibit at the Phoenix Police Museum also includes a lineup photo of the man whose case changed the way suspects are treated by police.
The downtown museum is located in the very building where the confession was made.
