In the case of John Arryo, there were many instances in which legal processes were not correctly followed, both on the part of Arryo as well as crucial members of the criminal justice system. Throughout the arrest and during the entire preliminary hearing, things got worse and worse for John Arryo, due to the fact that he was not knowledgeable on the process, as well as the fact that the judge, officers and prosecutors did not seem to care much about following legal protocol.
As John Arryo’s attorney, I would first inform him of the mistakes that he had made from the initial stages of his arrest through the preliminary hearing. The first mistake was that upon being arrested, John did not ask to speak to an attorney. The absolute first thing officers are required to do upon arresting a person, is to read them their Miranda rights, as stated in Criminal Procedure Theory and Practice by J.L. Ingram. It is possible that the officers failed to inform John of his rights at the time of arrest; however, since John had been arrested in the past for this same scenario, he should have remembered that he had the right to an attorney. Also, the officers obtained their search warrant after finding the farming supplies in John’s apartment, which means that they were clearly violating John’s rights. During the preliminary hearing, John should have realized that he still did not have any legal representation and should have demanded to have an attorney assigned to represent his case.
Additionally, John was unaware that he could have cross-examined the prosecution’s witnesses. This could have been an opportunity for him to poke holes in their accusations and potentially prove that he was not guilty of the charges and that he was not planning to create explosive devices. Once again, John suffered because of the lack of legal representation and also for not knowing his rights. When the judge brought up the opportunity for John to argue for bail, he completely did not know what to say, other than that he was not a criminal. John should have stated that he was not a danger to the community and should have requested to be released on bail. Because of this, he was forced to remain in custody.
While John made many mistakes regarding his legal rights and common knowledge, the members of the justice system that were involved in this case made even more mistakes. Because John simply did not know any of his rights, this is where the justice system should have stepped in to ensure that John’s rights were not violated.
References
Congressional Research Service (1791). CRS Annotated Constitution, Sixth Amendment. Retrieved from:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/amdt6frag2_user.html
Ingram, J.L. (2009). Criminal Procedure: Theory and Practice, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall.
