- When you're placed under arrest, it means you have been stopped and potentially taken into custody by an officer, meaning you are not free to walk away.

Even though you are not allowed to leave the scene, it's important to remember what rights you still have when you are under arrest.

(playful music) The rights you have while in police custody were enshrined in the 1960s, in one of the more well-known Supreme Court cases, Miranda v. Arizona.

Ever heard of your Miranda Rights?

Yep?

This is where they came from.

In this case, a man had written a confession to a crime after hours of police interrogation.

This occurred without the man being able to speak with an attorney, who may have given them different advice.

Despite objections from the defendant's attorneys on the circumstances of this confession, the man was found guilty.

When the case was presented to the Supreme Court, the justices ruled five-to-four that the defendant's Fifth Amendment Right had been violated.

Among other things, the Fifth Amendment protects you from being forced to say something that will open you up for criminal prosecution, also known as self-incrimination.

In its decision, the court established key pieces of information that are required to be shared with a person being placed under arrest.

They'll probably sound familiar from TV and movies.

You have the right to remain silent.

Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law.

If you start to speak, but then decide against it, you are not required to continue.

You have a right to have an attorney present during questioning.

If you cannot afford one, the court will provide you one prior to questioning.

Only then could evidence received from an interrogation be used against the defendant.

The rights guaranteed by this case are incredibly important to ensuring that even those suspected of a crime are given a fair shot in our criminal justice system.

Unfortunately, things get messy when they're put into practice.

And some argue that suspects have difficulty actually taking advantage of these rights.

For starters, there is no standard script that all police across the country are required to read.

One study found that potentially hundreds of variations of these rights have been delivered to suspects, ranging from 60 to 300 words.

Some argue that the longer the script is, the more room there is for an officer to misrepresent a person's rights.

On top of that, many believe that our Miranda Rights are worded in such a way that they leave more questions than answers for most people, including those who study the law, let alone someone going through the stress of being arrested.

And what happens if the suspect is mentally unstable, cannot understand the officer, or is simply too young to fully grasp the concept of these rights?

As you can see, there are many ways for people to fall through the cracks.

While the Constitution does provide some protections, if you ever find yourself in police custody, you need to be very careful what you say or do.

A trained lawyer is your best bet to help you navigate this difficult situation.

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