Yale Kamisar: The Enemy of Injustice

• Published in: Michigan law review Vol. 102; no. 8; pp. 1772 - 1775
• Main Author: White, Welsh S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ann Arbor The Michigan Law Review Association 01.08.2004; Michigan Law Review Association
• Subjects: Attorneys; College professors; Confessions; Criminal justice; Criminal procedure; Criminal procedures; Criminals; Defendants; Exclusionary rule; Gatehouses; Injustice; Interrogations; Kamisar, Yale; Law schools; Law teachers; Miranda rights; Personal profiles; Police; Questioning; Right to counsel; Scholars; State laws; Statutory law; Supreme Court decisions; Testimonials; Trials; United States > US
• ISSN: 0026-2234; 1939-8557
• DOI: 10.2307/4141966

Yale Kamisar's articles on police interrogation during the early 1960s provided the basis for the Supreme Court's decision in Miranda v Arizona and earned him the title of the "father of Miranda." Kamisar's meticulous scholarship, his precise analysis, and his passionate advocacy are all significant. But most important, perhaps, is simply the power of his writing. Prior to the Court's Miranda decision, other scholars commented on the disparity between the rights afforded suspects at trial and during pretrial interrogation. But by using his vivid "gatehouses and mansions" metaphor, Kamisar described this disparity in a way that gave it an immediacy it had previously lacked. Some have suggested that the legacy of the Warren Court's criminal-procedure decisions is a confused and contradictory set of rules for the police that have not produced more fairness for criminal suspects. Even if this perspective has some merit, there is no doubt that Kamisar remains "the enemy of injustice."