SubpagesMain
|
In many countries, a suspected criminal being arrested must legally be read their rights as a suspect. The exact procedure, wording and overall intention varies between countries. For country-specific forms of this, see You Do Not Have To Say Anything for the UK version and Miranda Rights for the US style.
Please only include examples on this page if they are either fictional or lacking a specific page.
Fictional Examples:
Anime and Manga
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, Fate and Chrono tell Vita and Shamal, respectively, that if they don't resist arrest, they will be allowed to plead in their defense.
Comic Books
- Top 10 has Smax trying to do this to Commissioner Ultima while getting the crap pounded out of him. At one point, Ultima brings a heavy load on his head, and he just says, "Okay, let's try this again. You have the right to remain silent..."
- When Nodwick is arrested in a rather not-nice alternate reality:
Legionnaire: You have the right to confess your transgressions. Any deviation from the truth will result in swift retribution and possibly death. Telling the truth is no guarantee of safety. You have the right to scream and beg for mercy, but that is often counter-productive. You have the right to die, but not until an agent of the state has utilized a weapon of some kind on your person. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?
Nodwick: Er, not particularly. I—
Legionnaire: The question was just a formality anyway.
- And the refusal of a 'right to die' is not idle, in a world with ready access to resurrection spells.
Newspaper Comics
- An old editorial cartoon from the 1980's satirized the justice system of the Soviet Union by showing the KGB arresting someone while reading them the "rights" of "You have been set up, you have the right to remain set up. Everything we say can and will be used against you in a sort-of law. You have the right to an executioner. If you cannot afford an executioner, you will be executed anyway and your family will be billed for the bullet."
Literature
- Parodied in Terry Pratchett's book Guards! Guards! when Carrot makes an arrest, and begins the list of rights with things like "You have the right not to be summarily thrown into a pirahna tank..." (Of course, this being Ankh-Morpork, the laws there might actually say that.)
- In Perdido Street Station by China Miéville, New Crobuzon has a style of arrest requiring the presence of witnesses, usually dragooned by the militia into assisting in an arrest rather than acting under their own volition. Interestingly, this style of arrest was detailed in a Real Life situation in Robert Little's The October Circle as being in use in communist Bulgaria, complete with press-ganged witnesses.
- The Adjudicators' version of reading your rights in the Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures is pretty close to "you have no rights" anyway, but Roz Forrester still adds her own spin:
"I am obliged to inform you that your words, guestures and postures are being recorded and may form part of any legal action against you. Under the terms of the data protection act 2820, as amended 2945, I am also obliged to inform you that you and any appointed legal representative will be able to purchase a copy of all recordings upon payment of the standard fee. I am obliged to tell you that, but I won't bother. Just don't piss us around."
Live-Action TV
Video Games
- Prototype has this:
You have the right to be ventilated. I have the right to burn your home and shoot your dog. Do you understand your rights as I have read them to you?
- Zork: Grand Inquisitor has this exchange, complete with cue card:
Wartle: Go ahead and read him his rights.
Inquisition Guard: You... have no rights.
- The protagonist of Baldur's Gate 2 has the option to ask an Obstructive Bureaucrat of Athkatla if "I have the right to remain silent". As if this wasn't anachronistic enough, the protagonist isn't even the accused, but simply a witness to a crime.
|
|