The words echo throughout our society, whether you're an attorney, a criminal or simply someone who enjoys TV police dramas.
"You have the right to remain silent."
That influential phrase became cemented in the American consciousness thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision 50 years ago today — Miranda v. Arizona.
The Show looks back at conversations with several of the late Phoenix attorneys involved in the case.
“A lot of people don't know they have constitutional rights and after Miranda now they all do," said John Frank, one of Miranda's late attorneys.
Conversation highlights
The case that led to that decision had its humble beginnings in Phoenix when two legendary attorneys took on accused rapist Ernesto Miranda as a client.
Miranda was a produce worker from Mesa. He became the prime suspect in a series of crimes in 1963, including rape.
Miranda was interrogated by the Phoenix Police Department and confessed, which led to him going to prison.
He was sentenced to serve 20 years, but the case caught the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union, which believed the poor and uneducated were not being told about their constitutional rights.
That led to two Phoenix attorneys, the late John Flynn and John Frank, petitioning the Supreme Court, which accepted the case and heard Miranda v. Arizona in February of 1966.
Frank was a legendary constitutional lawyer, while Flynn was considered a courtroom master.
It was Flynn who argued on Miranda's behalf before the high court that he had the right not to incriminate himself, that he had a right not to make any statement. That he had the right to be free from further questioning by the police department, that he had the right at an ultimate time to be represented adequately by counsel in court.
The late Gary Nelson, then an assistant attorney general in Arizona, argued the state's case.
He said police officers wouldn't be able to do their jobs if the law required that suspects were immediately entitled to attorneys.
"When counsel is introduced an interrogation, interrogation ceases. I thought we had done everything and that there was no question that Miranda knew what he was doing and that we'd given him almost all of the warnings that people were advocating and there was really no external evidence of coercion of any sort," Nelson said.
On June 13, 1966, a 5 to 4 majority of the court reversed Miranda's rape conviction, making his name synonymous with suspect's rights.
But the high court's decision was not retroactive and didn't free Miranda. He remained in the Florence prison, becoming a celebrity to his fellow inmates.
The late Peter Baird worked with John Frank and John Flynn and began to handle Miranda's representation.
"What I found so interesting about him is I had to get information about the other crime and the circumstances relating to the confession to that other crime," Baird said. "And I never forget when I talked to him in Florence, I asked him about that other confession, and he said, 'I don't confess. Didn't you know that?'"
"And I thought that was hilarious because of course he had confessed, but around the prison he had a reputation."
"He became a celebrity overnight, I guess the prison inmates understood the impact of this. Ernie never confesses, and so that made him a real celebrity," Baird said.
Miranda cashed in on his famous name after he left prison in March of 1975.
He autographed Miranda warning cards and added the date of the Supreme Court decision, and he sold them for a few dollars apiece.
But a poker game on January 31, 1976, in downtown Phoenix went awry, and Miranda was stabbed to death.
Though Ernesto Miranda's name is attached to the 50-year-old decision, the Supreme Court's 5 to 4 ruling and the work of his legal team are at the heart of the case's legacy.
Miranda's late lawyer John Frank summed it up this way.
"What was important about Miranda is that it said that, confessions had to be voluntary and, and that people were entitled to counsel and, didn't have to, could stand on their constitutional rights."
"A lot of people don't know they have constitutional rights, and after Miranda now they all do," Frank said.
