Confessions

Amendment for analyzing Confessions

Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth

Fourteenth Amendment Voluntariness

For a self-incriminating statement to be admissible under the DPC, it must be voluntary as determined by the totality of the circumstances. A statement will be involuntary only if there is some official compulsion.

Harmless Error Involuntary Confessions

If an involuntary confession is admitted into evidence, the harmless error test applies.

6A Right to Counsel generally

6A guarantees the right to assistance of counsel in all criminal proceedings, including all critical stages of a prosecution after judicial proceedings have begun.

6A Right to Counsel Applicable Stages

(1) Post-indictment interrogation regardless of whether it was custodial; (2) preliminary hearings to determine PC to prosecute; (3) arraignment; (4) post-charge lineups; (5) guilty plea and sentencing; (6) felony trials; (7) misdemeanor trials when imprisonment is actually imposed or when a suspended jail sentence is imposed; (8) overnight recesses during trial; (9) appeals as a matter of right; (10) appeals of guilty pleas

6A Right to Counsel Stages not Applicable

(1) Blood sampling; (2) handwriting or voice samples; (3) precharge or investigative lineups; (4) photo identifications; (5) preliminary hearings to determine PC to detain; (6) brief recesses during D’s testimony at trial; (7) discretionary appeals; (8) parole and probation revocation proceedings; and (9): post-conviction proceedings

6A Offense Specificity

6A is specific to the offense charged. The defendant may be questioned regarding unrelated, uncharged offenses without violating 6A right to counsel, although doing so may violate 5A and Miranda. Two offenses are different if each requires proof of an additional element that the other crime does not require.

Waiver of 6A Counsel

Can be waived, but the waiver must be knowing and voluntary. The waiver does not necessarily require the presence of counsel insofar has counsel has not actually been requested by defendant but was appointed by court

6A Counsel Violating Remedies

At nontrial proceedings the harmless error rule applies. Failure at trial results in automatic reversal of the conviction without further showing. Erroneous DQ of privately-retained counsel also leads to automatic reversal

6A Counsel: Impeachment

A statement obtained in violation of 6A right to counsel, while not admissible in the case-in-chief, may be used to impeach the defendant’s contrary trial testimony. Similar to the Miranda equivalent

Miranda Warnings

Required when a suspect is in custodial interrogation. For admissions or confessions to be admissible, a person in custody must, prior to interrogation, be informed: (1) of the right to remain silent; (2) that anything they say can be used against them in court; (3) of the right to presence of an attorney; and (4) if the person cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for them is they so desire

Miranda Governmental Conduct

Miranda warnings are generally only necessary if the detainee knows that they are being interrogated by a government agent. The warnings are not necessary when the detainee is being interrogated by an informant. Miranda also does not apply to an uncharged witness testifying before a grand jury even if the witness was compelled by subpoena to be there

Miranda Custody Requirement

A person is in custody if: (1) a reasonable person under the circumstances would not feel free to terminate the interrogation and leave; and (2) the relevant environment presents the same inherently coercive pressures as station house questioning

Miranda Interrogation Requirement:

Interrogation includes any words or conduct by the police that they should know would likely elicit an incriminating response from the detainee. Thus, Miranda warnings are not required before spontaneous statements nor before asking routine booking questions

Miranda Waiver or Termination

After receiving the Miranda warnings, a detainee can: do nothing, waive their rights, assert the right to remain silent, or assert the right to consult with an attorney

Miranda: Not responding

If the detainee does not respond at all to Miranda warnings, a court will not presume a waiver but will also not presume that the defendant has asserted the right to consult with an attorney. Police may continue questioning.

Miranda: Waiver of rights

The detainee may waive their rights. The government must show via preponderance that the waiver was knowing and voluntary under the totality of the circumstances. Usually, showing that the detainee received the warning and continued to answer questions is sufficient

Miranda: Invoking the Right to Remain Silent

The detainee must explicitly, unambiguously, and unequivocally assert their right to remain silent. If the detainee invokes this right, the police must scrupulously honor this request by not badgering the detainee. However, the Court has allowed the police to reinitiate questioning after a significant amount of time, re-Mirandizing, and with questions limited to a crime that was not the subject of earlier questioning

Miranda: Invocation of Right to Counsel

If the detainee unambiguously states that they wish to speak to counsel, all questioning must cease until counsel has provided unless: (1) the detainee waives the right to counsel; or (2) the detainee is released from custodial interrogation back to their normal life for at least 14 days. The request must be specific. Generally, the counsel must also be present during subsequent interrogation.

Effects of Miranda Violations

Generally, the evidence obtained in violation of the Miranda rules is inadmissible under the exclusionary rule. The statement can be used to impeach the defendant’s trial testimony but may not be used as evidence of guilt. An unwarned confession followed by a warned confession renders both inadmissible if it appears the police failed to provide the first warning in order to scheme around Miranda. If an unwarned statement leads to nontestimonial evidence, the nontestimonial evidence will be suppressed if the failure to warn was purposeful.

Miranda Public Safety Exception

An interrogation without Miranda warnings is permissible only when it is reasonably prompted by a concern for public safety

Pretrial ID: Right to Counsel

A suspect has the right to counsel at any post-charge lineup or showup but not for photo identifications or when police take physical evidence such as handwriting samples or fingerprints.

Pretrial ID Due Process

A defendant may attack an ID as denying due process if the identification is unnecessarily suggestive and there is a substantial likelihood of misidentification.

Pretrial ID Remedy

The remedy for unconstitutional identifications is exclusion of the in-court identification

Independent Source Exception to ID Remedy

Even if a pretrial ID was unconstitutional, a witness may make an in-court ID if the in-court ID has an independent source, such as an opportunity to observe at the time of the crime

ID Admissibility Hearing

Admissibility of ID evidence should be determined at a suppression hearing in the absence of the jury, but the exclusion of the jury is not constitutionally required. The government bears the burden of proving that: (1) counsel was present; (2) the accused waived counsel; or (3) there is an independent source for the in-court identification. The defendant must prove a due process violation