Escobedo: A Right to Counsel During Police Interrogations
The Supreme Court on this day overturned the conviction of Danny Escobedo holding that criminal suspects have a right to counsel during in-custody interrogations.
Escobedo had been arrested and released on January 20, 1960, on suspicion of murder in Chicago. He was later rearrested and interrogated for 14½ hours, while repeatedly denied his request to speak with his attorney.
The decision built on the landmark right to counsel at trial decision, Gideon v. Wainwright, decided on March 18, 1963, and set the stage for an even more important decision in Miranda v. Arizona, on June 13, 1966, which famously held that the police have to inform a suspect of his or her right to an attorney before being questioned.
Justice Goldberg’s majority opinion: “. . . no system of criminal justice can, or should, survive if it comes to depend for its continued effectiveness on the citizens’ abdication through unawareness of their constitutional rights.”
Learn more about the history of the right to counsel: http://www.nlada.org/About/About_HistoryDefender
Listen to the oral argument in the case: http://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1963/1963_615
Learn more about police misconduct: Samuel Walker and Carol Archbold, The New World of Police Accountability, 3rd ed. (2020)