Escobedo v. Illinois

Skyler Riddle

Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) 5-4 Justice Goldberg

Facts: (January 20, 1960) Danny Escobedo of 22 years old, whom is from Mexican extraction,

was arrested for the murder of his brother-in-law Manuel Valtierra. Although with advice from

counsel Plaintiff did not talk during interrogation, friend of Plaintiff, Benedict Digerlando, told

police that Plaintiff had shot Valtierra due to the victim had mistreated Plaintiff’s sister. (January

30, 1960) Police arrest Plaintiff again, as well as Plaintiff’s sister, Grace. On transportation,

police officers refused to allow Plaintiff to communicate with his attorney. The police officers

then interrogated the Plaintiff for fourteen and thirty minutes until the Plaintiff made damaging

silent, also the police officers violated “Assistance of Counsel” guaranteed under the Sixth

Amendment of the Constitution whenever they denied the Plaintiff his attorney during the

interrogation. The Fifth Amendment was also emphasized due to whether the appropriate

warnings had been given, and were given correctly, and whether the right to remain silent had

been waived or not.

Dissent: (White) (Clark) (Stewart) The Court held that once the accused becomes a suspect, and

is arrested, then any admission made to the police thereafter is inadmissible evidence unless the

accused has waived the right to counsel, the Justices that dissent reject that step and state that

from the moment that his right to counsel was attached, the Court cannot dismiss the Court’s

prior cases requiring the presence of aid of counsel and substitute the amorphous and wholly