Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(D)  Trial.  A conviction resulting from a trial must be invalidated, for violation of the right of confrontation, where no interpreter had been appointed to assist the defendant who did not speak sufficient English understand the testimony.[230]

[230] United States ex rel. Negron v. State of New York, 310 F. Supp. 1304 (E.D.N.Y. 1970), affirmed, 434 F.2d 386 (2d Cir. 1970) (Spanish-speaking defendant in a criminal case held entitled to the services of an interpreter, and failure to provide interpreter at trial required reversal for constitutional error); Baltierra v. State, 586 S.W.2d 553 (Tex. Crim. App. 1979) (conviction reversed where defendant, a Mexican national who did not understand English, did not waive her right to have trial proceedings translated by failing to request the court interpreter to do so, since her right of confrontation had been denied).