"Miranda’s Victim" dramatizes the historical Miranda’s rights case

Most viewers of the film “Miranda’s Victim” will have at least passing knowledge of what Miranda’s Rights are. On numerous police procedural programs, arresting officers inform criminal suspects, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law,” and so on.

Since 1966, U.S. law, as decided by the Supreme Court, has required this warning to protect potential defendants’ Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to counsel. However, I’d venture to say that few of us, include me here, know much, if anything, of the events that became the catalyst for this notification. Now, in “Miranda’s Victim,” director Michelle Danner details the events leading to this landmark ruling, that vital right to remain silent to avoid possible self-incrimination without legal representation present.  

“Miranda’s Victim” begins in 1963, Phoenix, Arizona, with eighteen-year-old Patricia “Trish” Weir on her way home from work at a cinema concession stand. Ernesto Arturo Miranda, a twenty-two-year-old laborer and truck driver with a criminal record, kidnaps Trish and takes her to the desert outside Phoenix where he rapes her. Courageously then and afterwards, Trish reports the crime.

After a circuitous hunt for the perpetrator, a resourceful police pair follow up and extract a confession after Trish identifies Miranda in a police line-up and incriminating evidence is offered by Miranda’s girlfriend. Subsequently, Miranda’s lawyer appeals, the conviction overturned because the admission of guilt “should not have been allowed in evidence.” Devastated, reliving the trauma, Trish pursues justice over the objections of her mother who expresses the sexist idea that she will be “damaged goods.” Trish persists, with the support of her sister and a good lawyer.

 At the heart of the story, Abigail Breslin as Trish verbally and nonverbally communicates Trish’s emotional damage with her righteous certainty that she must keep Miranda from victimizing more women. A stellar cast brings this story to vivid life, including Mireille Enos as Trish’s mother, Ryan Phillippe as the attorney defending Miranda, Emily VanCamp as Trish’s sister Ann, Donald Sutherland as Judge Wren, and Andy Garcia, Kyle MacLachlan, Luke Wilson, and more in supporting roles. Though low-budget, “Miranda’s Victim” succeeds impressively with terrific acting, an excellent script, and an important story that interweaves the crime, the police, the legal system, and Trish’s family. “Miranda’s Victim” is streaming on several platforms.