The Difficulties of Limited‐English‐Proficient Individuals in the Legal Setting

Abstract

I have worked on several cases that have involved the language abilities of individuals accused of crimes. These cases have been of two types-those in which statements made during the alleged crime are attributed to the individual and are introduced as either incriminating evidence or are used as means of identifying the individual, and those in which the statements made by the defendant after arrest are introduced as being made freely, knowingly and voluntarily. The cases I have worked on have all involved individuals of limited English proficiency. This paper is offered to document the range of their language-related difficulties and to report the approaches and methods that I have used in work on their defense. I will relate the incidents of two cases that both involve difficulties that arise out of the individual's reaction to statements not fully understood and then report the methods used to establish this failure of comprehension and the veracity of the individual's responses. In reporting the case of Steve, I will trace examples in the transcript of miscomprehension by the individual in the conversation used as evidence against him. In discussing the case of Angela, I will report the methods used to establish the level of English proficiency of the individual and the techniques used to establish the reliability of the data received from the individual. Inter ulia, the difficulties of the limited-English-proficient individual are revealed. Case 1The first case is that of Steve, a restaurant owner, who having difficulty with tax problems is approached by his clergyman saying that he knows two men who can help him "fix" his taxes. The clergyman and the two men arrive one night at Steve's restaurant and speak with Steve. The two men are undercover Treasury Department agents who secretly record the conversation which is later used as evidence in a charge against Steve for tax evasion.The task I was asked to perform was to examine the tape and the transcript of

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“…Over the past forty years, works related to forensic linguistics by various scholars (including Gibbons 1990;Roy 1990;Wadensjö 1998;Inghilleri 2003;and Heydon 2005) have investigated the issue of language before the law, focusing on complex legal language, but also on multilingual practices.…”