John P. Frank

In the following viewpoint, John P. Frank argues that the

U.S. Supreme Court made the correct decision on June 26, 2000, when it ruled that the Miranda warning should not be overturned. According to Frank, Miranda protects a defendant’s right against self-incrimination by preventing police from using torture to obtain false confessions. He asserts that despite the efforts of Congress to weaken Miranda, the law has been proven sound and helpful. Frank argued for Ernesto Miranda in the 1966 Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona. As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Frank, what makes the safeguard of the Fifth Amendment meaningless?
2. How were African American defendants treated in Bessemer, Alabama, as detailed by Justice Hugo Black?
3. In Frank’s opinion, what is every American entitled to know?  

Miranda lives. Well...