Court: Defendants with limited English have right to interpreter

This decision defining "Due Process" is important for registrants of sex offender registries. If it is true (according to this decision) that, if one is not affluent with the spoken language (English in this case), a qualified interpreter must be provided, then it is also true that, FSOs -when registering- must have a interpreter affluent in LAW when they are forced to sign forms which are burdened with legal terms and constructions not readily apparent to the signer! Right! Providing one name and address (i.e., registration) is completely different than signing that one understands the law they are to follow....

11-23-2010 Georgia:

Atlanta (CNN) -- Defendants with limited English-language skills have a constitutional right to court interpreters in criminal trials, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled Monday.

The ruling came in a case involving a Mandarin Chinese speaker who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on two counts of cruelty to a child. Annie Ling, who had limited English language skills, did not understand that she had the option to plead guilty instead of going to trial and possibly facing a longer sentence, said the American Civil Liberties Union, one of two groups that filed a friend-of-the-court brief stating that denying a defendant an interpreter violates the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws.

"The court acknowledged that we don't have two systems of justice in this country -- one for English speakers and another for everyone else," said Azadeh Shahshahani, director of the National Security/Immigrants' Rights Project at the ACLU of Georgia. "The constitutional guarantee of due process applies to everyone in this country, not just fluent English speakers."

Ling was arrested and charged with two counts of cruelty to a child. Her children were removed from the home and placed in foster care, according to court documents. After a 2008 trial, Ling was convicted of one count of cruelty to a child, and sentenced to 15 years, with 10 to serve in prison. The conviction was appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court.

The court agreed with the brief, in which the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center joined with the ACLU, that the Sixth Amendment and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment guarantee the defendant the right to an interpreter.

The Georgia Supreme Court also instructed all Georgia state courts to practice "vigilance in protecting the rights of non-English-speakers." ..Source.. by CNN