Ch. 8 Self-Incrimination (Q2) Flashcards
What 3 constitutional provisions control police interrogation and confessions?
1) 14th Amendment - Due Process Clause
2) 6th Amendment - Right-to-Counsel Clause
3) 5th Amendment - Self-Incrimination Clause
At what stages of the criminal process are the 5th and 14th Amendment due process clauses applicable?
All stages
At what stages of the criminal process is the 6th Amendment right-to-counsel clause applicable?
All stages after formal charges
At what stages of the criminal process is the 5th Amendment self-incrimination clause applicable?
Custodial interrogation and all following stages
This approach to interrogation and confessions dealt with early false-confession cases of white mobs torturing poor, illiterate black people until they confessed.
What is the due process approach?
What was the basic idea behind confessions under the due process approach, and how were they tested?
The basic idea was that confessions must be voluntary and evaluated with the voluntariness test
How were confessions evaluated under the voluntariness test?
The totality of the circumstances surrounding the confession to see if the suspect voluntarily confessed
What are the 3 rationales for the due process approach?
1) Reliability rationale
2) Accusatory system rationale
3) Free will rationale
This due process approach rationale states that admitting unreliable evidence to prove guilt denies defendants the right to their lives, liberty, and/or property without due process of the law.
What is the reliability rationale?
This due process approach rationale states that forced confessions violate due process even if they’re true.
What is the accusatory system rationale?
This due process approach rationale states that involuntary confessions are unreliable and, contrary to the accusatory system of justice, all confessions are coerced if they’re not the product of a rational intellect and free will.
What is the free will rationale?
A critical stage in criminal prosecutions.
What is custodial interrogation?
In this 1964 case, SCOTUS ruled that the defendant’s murder confession had to be thrown out since he gave it without the advice of his lawyer.
What is Escobedo v. Illinois?
Which interrogation/confession approach was used to evaluate the Escobedo case?
Right-to-Counsel Approach
What 3 elements must defendants prove to successfully claim that their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination was violated (HINT: CIT)?
1) Compulsion
2) Incrimination
3) Testimony
The content of what you say and write.
What is testimony?
Is physical evidence protected by the Fifth Amendment? Why or why not?
No, because the 5th Amendment protects against testimony and NOT physical evidence
In this 1966 case, USSC determined that a blood alcohol sample taken against the suspect’s will did not count as testimonial evidence.
What is Schmerber v. California?
What is incriminating evidence not protected by the 5th Amendment called?
Non-testimonial evidence
What was the ruling for Miranda v. Arizona?
Suspects taken into custody to be subjected to interrogation must first be advised of their 5th Amendment rights under due process of the law
Why did SCOTUS issue a “bright line” rule to govern custodial interrogations?
Because custodial interrogations are inherently coercive
What does the Miranda bright-line rule do exactly?
Prevents police coercion while allowing police pressure
At what 3 points/scenarios can police question people without Mirandizing them?
1) Crime scenes
2) Before people become suspects
3) 4th Amendment stops
Being held by the police in a police station or depriving an individual of “freedom of action in any significant way.”
What is custody?
This case held that being subjected to questioning at a 4th Amendment traffic stop did not amount to “custodial interrogation” and, therefore, did not require Mirandizing the motorist.
What is Berkemer v. McCarty (1984)?
This 1984 case held that the need for answers in a situation posing a risk to public safety, such as an unattended gun lying around, outweighs the need to Mirandize the suspect prior to questioning.
What is New York v. Quarles?
What exception to Miranda did NY v. Quarles (1984) bring about?
Public safety exception
Any words or actions on the part of the police that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect.
What is interrogation?
Identify the 2 circumstances that must exist before officers have to give Miranda warnings.
1) Custody
2) Interrogation
This 1980 case created the 5th Amendment “Functional Equivalent of a Question” Test. LEOs talked about how talked about how the shotgun he dropped landed on the grounds of a school for special needs children, prompting the defendant to confess.
What is Rhode Island v. Innis?
What words are included in the functional equivalent of a question test?
Words police officers should know are likely to elicit an incriminating response
The 1977 “Christian Burial Speech” case invoking the 6th Amendment “Deliberately Eliciting a Response” Test.
What is Brewer v. Williams?
What was the ruling for Brewer v. Williams?
LEOs taking advantage of Williams’ religious convictions to elicit an incriminating confession was a clear violation of 6th and 14th Amendments
This waiver test states that the suspect makes it clear that he knows his rights, knows he’s giving them up, and knows the consequences.
What is the express waiver test?
This waiver test states that the totality of circumstances surrounding each case has to prove that before suspects talked, they knew their rights and knew they were giving them up.
What is the implied waiver test?
Which waiver test is preferred to judge whether a suspect is sure they are waiving their rights? Express or implied waiver? Why?
Implied because it takes into account the totality of circumstances
This 2010 case held that criminal suspects who want to protect their right to remain silent must speak up and invoke it.
What is Berguis v. Thompkins?
Identify the 2 elements a defendant must prove in order to show a confession was involuntary.
1) Officers engaged in coercive conduct during interrogation
2) Coercive conduct caused suspect to make incriminating statements
Despite being mentally ill and having been a mental patient, why was Connelly’s murder confession in Colorado v. Connelly admitted?
It was voluntary (not compelled) because the murder had been weighing on Connelly’s conscience
What are 4 ways confessions are proven false?
1) Crime never happened
2) Defendant physically couldn’t have committed crime
3) Actual criminal proven guilty
4) DNA evidence exonerates defendant
This type of false confession is made for a variety of reasons, such as a desire for notoriety or a need for self-punishment to remove guilty feelings.
What is voluntary false?
This type of false confession involves suspects giving in to demands to escape an uncomfortable situation or receive a reward.
What is compliant false?
This type of false confession is when 18-year-old Peter Reilly called LEO after finding his mother murdered. LEOs suspected he did it, gained his trust, and told him he failed a lie detector test (a lie).
What is internalized false?
What are 3 reforms to reduce false confessions?
1) Reducing length of time in custody and interrogation
2) Eliminating police use of false information during interrogation
3) Recording interrogations and confessions
