By Hon. William G. Kelly, Retired 62B District Court Judge
At the time of a guilty plea, the court must advise a defendant of his or her rights. This can be done in writing, but people who are illiterate or have low literacy just sign their names without knowing their rights. Literate people can read the rights, but they often sign without reading to expedite the process. Educators tell us that people retain only 10 percent of what they read, 20 percent of what they hear, and 50 percent of what they both see and hear.[1] So I believe it is important to read the advice of rights to the defendants. However, reading the advice of rights to everyone is time-consuming and repetitive, and it’s possible to miss something.
In the 62B District Court (Kentwood), we created a narrated slide show video for criminal case defendants to watch about their rights.
It was very easy to prepare the slide shows and costs nothing except time. We set up a Microsoft PowerPoint slide show, selected the “Slide Show” tab, then clicked on “Record Slide Show.” Using a microphone attached to the computer, we recorded my narration of the slide show.
Kentwood is a very diverse community, and defendants in our
court often have limited English proficiency.
We have now also recorded the Advice of Rights in several other
languages prevalent in the Kentwood area: Spanish, Vietnamese, Bosnian, Nepali,
and Swahili. Samples are published on
our website. We are in the process of adding more
languages. Now a defendant can read and
hear the rights in his or her native language.
We don’t have to hire an interpreter to translate the rights in every case,
which saves time and money. Defendants
have expressed appreciation that we took the time to prepare the Advice of
Rights in their languages.
We have also prepared narrated slide shows to advise
defendants of their rights in Landlord-Tenant and Small Claims cases.
The Michigan Judicial Institute posted the Advice of Rights in PowerPoint slide shows in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Vietnamese here.
Judge William G. Kelly served as the judge of the 62-B District Court (Kentwood, Michigan) from 1979 through 2020. Since 1985 he has been a faculty member for the Michigan Judicial Institute, where he teaches at the New Judges Seminar and several other courses. Judge Kelly has been a member of the National Judicial College Faculty since 2002. He has also presented several programs on the use of technology in courts.
Judge Kelly attended the University College Dublin 1968-69, then graduated from the University of Detroit in 1970. He taught math in Peace Corps Ghana for two years. Judge Kelly earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Detroit School of Law in 1975. He has five children and enjoys travel and playing Team Trivia.
[1]
According to Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience, published in Audiovisual Methods
in Teaching, 1969, NY: Dryden Press.