I was not given a Miranda warning when arrested. Will the judge dismiss my case?

No. Although a Miranda warning is routinely given to an accused person at the time of arrest, it is not required. Many people believe a case will be dismissed if the police failed to give the warning. However, the law requires that a warning be given before the police interrogate a suspect. If the police fail to give a Miranda warning at that time, statements made by the accused cannot be used as evidence. In addition, under the ''fruit of the poisonous tree'' rule, if the police find evidence resulting from an interrogation that violates the Miranda rule, that evidence is also inadmissible at trial. For example, if the accused tells the police where a weapon is hidden and this information was given in response to improper questioning, the police will not be able to use the weapon as evidence. The prosecutor is allowed to use the evidence if he proves the police would have found the weapon without the statements.

The Supreme Court required Miranda warnings in the 1996 opinion Miranda v. Arizona to protect a suspect's Fifth Amendment right to avoid coercive self-incrimination. Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote in 2000 that Miranda warnings had become "embedded in routine police practice to the point where the warnings have become part of our national culture" because of the prevalence of television and movies in which the police characters read suspects their rights.

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