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Local News

Law Day, 2016: Part One. The introduction

The Barry County Bar Association recognized Law Day in an April 29 ceremony in the Barry County Circuit Courtroom. The theme of Law Day 2016 is “Miranda, more than words.”

During the observance, the association presented the Liberty Bell Award to Don Geukes of Middleville and heard a speech by James Redford (see related stories).

 

Three years before the Miranda v Arizona case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all citizens had the right to counsel in serious cases, which was later broadened to include all crimes, Judge Amy McDowell said in her opening remarks.

 

“However, that would be an empty promise if the accused was not aware of the right, or how to exercise that right,” she said. With the Miranda decision, officers were required to give individuals in custody the now familiar “Miranda warning” to assure that they knew their rights.

 

McDowell said 2016 is the 50th anniversary of Miranda v Arizona, and the Miranda warning has become ingrained in law enforcement and popular consciousness through countless recitations in films and television shows.

 

“Yet, Miranda is only part of the story when it comes to the procedures for ensuring justice. These procedural rights afforded all of us, how these rights are safeguarded by the courts and why the preservation of these principles is essential to our liberty, is the focus of this year’s Law Day theme,” she said.

 

Attorney Bob Byington told Miranda’s story. Ernesto Miranda, from Arizona, was 23, poor, with a ninth grade education, when he was tried and convicted of rape and sentenced to prison.

 

When reviewing the case, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged that while the police did not coerce, threaten or promise Miranda anything during his interrogation, neither did they inform him of his right to have counsel when being interrogated or that his words would to be used against him in court, Byington said.

 

Miranda was granted a new trial, was again convicted and sent to prison in 1967. He was paroled in 1972. His story had an ironic ending, Byington said. Miranda was murdered in a bar fight in 1976. His suspected attacker used his right to remain silent contained in the Miranda warning. With no other evidence against him, the suspect was released.

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