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No Hablo Ingles: Court Interpretation As A Major Obstacle To Fairness For Non-English Speaking Defendants, Michael B. Shulman
No Hablo Ingles: Court Interpretation As A Major Obstacle To Fairness For Non-English Speaking Defendants, Michael B. Shulman
Vanderbilt Law Review
A Cuban man was convicted on drug charges for uttering the words above. He used the words in response to a request for a loan and, given the dialect of the speaker and the context of the statement, they can properly be translated as "[m]an, I don't even have ten cents." Instead, the court interpreter mistakenly translated them as, "[m]an, I don't even have ten kilos."' This case demonstrates the influence the court interpreter can have on the outcome of a case. As extraordinary as this situation may appear, however, it is not an isolated incident. Rather, what is unusual …