The Miranda warning has become one of the most visible protections of Americans civil rights. Because the warning protects suspected criminals at the point of arrest, the warning has provoked debate about the benefits of protecting individual rights at the cost of impeding police investigative powers. The warning only protects a person from self-incrimination, and it does not deter the police from making an arrest, only interrogating a suspect. Movies, television police dramas, and "real" cop shows, have done much to inform the public of the protection offered by the Miranda warning. Tom Hanks even delivered a (mercifully abbreviated) rap version of the warning in the 1987 movie Dragnet.

The case of Miranda v. Arizona began with the 1963 kidnapping of a young Phoenix, Arizona, woman. The kidnapper took her into the desert outside of Phoenix, raped her, and brought her back to the city.

The police apprehended...