The Oklahoma Bar Journal September 2022

A ccess to J ustice

Attorneys, Interpreters and Justice

By Taylor Cozzens

A T THE CONCLUSION OF World War II, as the Allies prepared to try Nazi leaders in Nuremberg, Germany, Hermann Göring declared, “Of course I want counsel. But it is even more important to have a good interpreter.” His prosecutors agreed. With pending testi mony from speakers of German, French, Russian, English and other languages, the Allies knew the trial could not go forward without competent, professional interpretation.

order to participate effectively in his own defense …A defen dant’s inability to spontaneously understand testimony being given … would be as though [he] were forced to observe the proceedings from a soundproof booth … being able to observe but not comprehend the criminal processes whereby the state had put his freedom in jeopardy.

In the U.S. courts of the 1970s, judicial authorities reached a similar conclusion. In a 1974 case involving a Spanish speaker, the Supreme Court of Arizona ruled that defendants of limited English proficiency have a fundamental right to interpreters. In their words: It is axiomatic that a … defen dant who is unable to speak and understand the English language should be afforded the right to have the trial proceedings trans lated into his native language in

Since the 1970s, authorities around the nation have worked hard to train – and certify the

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL