ST. PAUL, Minn., July 19 (UPI) -- The Minnesota Supreme Court has overturned the sexual assault conviction of a Somali man because police did not read him his rights in his native language.
The court Thursday ordered a new trial for Burhan Mohammed Farrah by a 4-3 margin, The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. The majority found that the record did not show Farrah entirely understood what rights he was waiving when he agreed to be questioned without a lawyer after getting the Miranda warnings.
Police found Farrah in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Plymouth where a developmentally disabled 14-year-old girl had said she was assaulted.
The judges in the minority found that Farrah had enough knowledge of English to understand what he was doing. He was provided with an interpreter at his trial.
