Chapter 1
The Crime Beat: The Interrogation Protocol
By Dave Krajicek

The Miranda warning's title is derived from the name of a man arrested in the 1963 rape of an 18-year-old in Phoenix.

Ernest Miranda, then 23, was a dockworker with a sex crime rap sheet. He was taken in for questioning after his car was seen cruising the vicinity of the rape a few nights later.

Detectives told Miranda his car had been identified as the perpetrator's vehicle – a lie. Miranda denied involvement but agreed to stand in a line-up. The victim could not identify Miranda, but detectives lied again and told him she had.

Miranda proceeded to confess. The interrogation protocol of that era hinged on whether a statement was voluntary or coerced.

Miranda agreed to make a written statement, and he signed a standard form attesting that his confession was 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 may be used against me."

At trial, Miranda's attorneys tried unsuccessfully to block use of the confession as evidence. Miranda was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. His lawyers appealed, arguing cops had violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel by coercing a confession before a lawyer was called.

In 1966, Miranda vs. Arizona made its way to the United States Supreme Court, where attorneys argued the case for and against a Sixth Amendment violation.

But in its decision issued June 13, 1966, the high court set aside the conviction by a 5-4 vote on the grounds that Miranda's Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination had been violated.

The majority opinion, written by Justice Earl Warren, said police and prosecutors must proactively and clearly inform crime suspects of basic rights and cease interrogation any time a suspect asks for a lawyer – requirements that went far beyond the old protocol of voluntary vs. coerced statements.

The court's ruling did not contain the now-familiar four sentences we know as the Miranda warning. They were written by Harold Berliner, a California county attorney who was tapped in 1966 by that state's attorney general to write a short, clear warning that could be distributed to law enforcement personnel.

Berliner marketed his Miranda warning on wallet-sized cards to police agencies across the nation, and his language became the American standard. Ernest Miranda was retried and convicted, even without his confession. After his parole, he was fatally stabbed in 1976 during a fight in Phoenix.