Protecting the rights of the accused: use of Spanish-language Miranda warnings in central Florida

Large, systematic investigations of Miranda warnings have evidenced remarkable heterogeneity in length and reading level across American jurisdictions. For Spanish translations, marked disparities were found when compared to the original-English Miranda warnings including awkward wording, mistranslations, and even the complete omission of crucially important Miranda components. To complement these broad studies, the current research provides an in-depth analysis of Miranda warnings used by the 9th Judicial Circuit of central Florida. Based upon 15 side-by-side comparisons of Spanish and English warnings, Spanish warnings were longer and required substantially higher reading levels. Three of five Spanish Miranda components on average required a minimum reading level at the Spanish 10^th to 12^th grade level. Although all original English versions, included the 5^th component (Continuing Rights) in the original English, 20% inexplicably failed to do so for the Spanish translations, raising fundamental concerns regarding equal protection under the law for non-English speaking detainees. Community-based initiatives are discussed for improving Spanish translations and increasing Spanish-speaking detainees’ accessibility to legal expertise and forensic consultants.