Confessions

Question 1

What amendments are involved in admissibility of confessions?

Answer 1

4,5,6, and 14

Question 2

What does the 14A’s due process clause require for the admissibility of self-incriminating statements?

Answer 2

Voluntariness (test is the totality of the circumstances)

Involuntariness exists only with official compulsion (cannot be involuntary based on, e.g., incapacity).

Question 3

On appeal, what test is used to determine the consequences of erroneous admission of an involuntary confession into evidence?

Answer 3

Harmless error – the conviction need not be overturned if there is other overwhelming evidence of guilt

Question 4

What is the 6A’s right to counsel?

Answer 4

6A guarantees the right to an attorney in criminal proceedings, at all critical stages of a prosecution after the commencement of formal proceedings (formal charges filed)

Applicable to, e.g., post-indictment interrogation, preliminary hearings on probable cause to prosecute, arraignment, post-charge lineups, guilty plea and sentencing, felony trials, misdemeanor trials where imprisonment or suspended sentence imposed, overnight recesses at trials, appeals as a matter of right, guilty pleas

Inapplicable to, e.g., taking blood and handwriting samples and fingerprints, pre-charge lineups, brief recesses during defendant’s trial testimony, parole and probation revocation proceedings, photo identifications, post-conviction proceedings

Note: the right to counsel during custodial interrogation is a 5A right

Question 5

What is the scope of the 6A right to counsel?

Answer 5

It is offense specific, applying only to the particular charge for which defendant has retained or been appointed counsel. Defendant may be questioned on unrelated and uncharged offenses without violating 6A rights (though may violate 5A)

Question 6

Can the 6A right to counsel be waived?

Answer 6

Yes, it must be knowing and voluntary. Waiver does not necessarily require counsel’s presence

Question 7

What is the remedy for a 6A violation?

Answer 7

At non-trial proceedings: harmless error rule applies on appeal
At trial: failure to provide counsel or erroneous disqualification of privately retained counsel = automatic reversal of conviction without need to show unfairness

Question 8

What is the admissibility of a statement obtained in violation of a defendant’s 6A right to counsel?

Answer 8

Not admissible in prosecution’s case-in-chief but admissible to impeach defendant’s trial testimony by prior inconsistent statement

Question 9

What is the due process standard applicable to pretrial identifications?

Answer 9

Some pretrial identification techniques may be so unnecessarily suggestive and so substantially likely to produce a misidentification that they deny due process of law

Question 10

What is the remedy for the unconstitutional pre-trial identification?

Answer 10

Exclusion unless the state can show it had an adequate independent source for the in-court identification (usually that the victim or witness had an adequate opportunity to observe the defendant at the time of the crime)

Question 11

What are the Miranda warnings?

Answer 11

A person in custody must be informed of 5A rights for any admissions or confessions to be admissible. Must be told:

(1) of their right to remain silent
(2) that anything they say can be used against them in a court of law
(3) of their right to an attorney
(4) that if they cannot afford one, one will be appointed

This protects defendant’s 5A right to be free from self-incrimination (a right to counsel here is separate from the 6A right to counsel during proceedings)

Question 12

When are Miranda warnings required?

Answer 12

Prior to custodial interrogations by government agents (usually only necessary where the detainee is aware that they are being interrogated by a government agent).

Question 13

Are Miranda warnings applicable to grand jury testimony?

Answer 13

No, not even of witnesses compelled by subpoena to be there

Question 14

When does custody exist?

Answer 14

(1) a reasonable person under the circumstances would not feel they were free to terminate the interrogation and leave (totality of circumstances)
(2) the relevant environment presents the same inherently coercive pressures as station house questioning

Question 15

When is there interrogation?

Answer 15

Interrogation is any words or conduct by police which they know or should know are likely to elicit an incriminating response
(therefore a spontaneous statement by a detainee is not inadmissible for lack of Miranda warning)
routine booking questions ≠ interrogation

Question 16

What are a detainee’s options after receiving Miranda?

Answer 16

Do nothing (no waiver presumed, police may continue to question)
Waive Miranda
Invoke the right to remain silent
Invoke the right to counsel

Question 17

When is a detainee’s Miranda waiver effective?

Answer 17

Government must show by preponderance of the evidence that the waiver was knowing and voluntary (assess based on totality of circumstances)

Likely sufficient where shown that the detainee received Miranda and then chose to answer questions

Question 18

When is a detainee’s invocation of a right to remain silent effective?

Answer 18

When it is explicit, unambiguous, and unequivocal (failure to answer is not an invocation!). Police must scrupulously honor the request and not continue to question, though may later question on an unrelated crime

Question 19

When is a detainee’s invocation of their 5A right to counsel effective?

Answer 19

When they unambiguously and specifically indicate their wish to speak to counsel. Then all questioning must cease until counsel is provided unless the defendant then waives the right by reinitiating or has been released from custodial interrogation and 14 days have passed since release.

Not usually ok to resume questioning after counsel has left when there has been an effective invocation of the right to counsel

Question 20

What is the effect of a violation of Miranda?

Answer 20

Usually a confession obtained in violation of Miranda is inadmissible at trial under the exclusionary rule but may be used to impeach the defendant’s testimony.

When a confession in violation of Miranda leads to nontestimonial fruits of the poisonous tree, then the evidence will be suppressed if the failure was purposeful but not if it was not.

Question 21

What is the effect of a confession obtained when police questioned a detainee, then gave Miranda, then obtained a confession?

Answer 21

The confession will be inadmissible if the nature of the questioning was intentional (a scheme to avoid Miranda) but may be admissible if the original unwarned questioned seemed unplanned/the failure to warn inadvertent

Question 22

What is the public safety exception to Miranda?

Answer 22

Custodial interrogation without Miranda allowed where reasonably prompted by a public safety concern (e.g., to immediately locate a hidden gun)