United States of America Ex Rel. Rogelio Nieves Negron v. The State of New York

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that a defendant who spoke no English, and “s[a]t in total incomprehension as the trial proceeded,” was not sufficiently “present” to satisfy the dictates of the Sixth Amendment
• rejecting “government’s suggestion that Negron waived” his right to an interpreter, based on the right to be present under the Confrontation Clause, “by his passive acquiescence in the grinding of the judicial machinery and his failure to affirmatively assert the right”
• absent adequate interpretation, defendant prevented from understanding testimony offered against him and lacked ability to confront witnesses
• “Not only for the sake of effective cross-examination, however, but as a matter of simple humaneness, [a defendant] deserve[s] more than to sit in total incomprehensiveness as the trial proceed[s]”
• for non-English speaker deprived of adequate interpreter, most of trial is \[a] babble of voices\
• due process, the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation, and the right to be present at one’s own trial required appointment of interpreter for a defendant who did not speak or understand English

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).