CHAPTER 8 OUTLINE

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Confessions play an ambivalent role in society and law, an ambivalence that is ancient.

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they confess to friends to associates, who report these statements to officials; they confess during plea bargaining or while pleading guilty( the most common setting); they confess during sentencing when making incriminating statements to show their remorse; They confess during police interrogations following their arrest.

The atmosphere in police stations is:

strange and intimidating. suspects are searched thoroughly, have to stand in lineups, and are interrogated nonstop.

As soon as police officers have shifted their search from a general investigation to building a case against an individual:

the accusatory stage of the criminal process- the needs to law enforcement versus the interests of individual privacy and liberty carry higher stakes for both suspects and law enforcement.

Defining the proper constitutional balance between law enforcement:

needs and suspects' privacy has created much controversy.

Fred Inbau professor of law cited why he supported interrogations;

police cant solve many crimes unless guilty people confess or suspects give information that can convict someone else./ Criminals dont confess unless the police either catch them in the act or interrogate them in private./police have to use "less refined methods" when they interrogate suspects than are "appropriate for the transaction of ordinary, every day affairs by and between law abiding citizens.

Some empirical research suggets that;

interrogators rarely coerce suspects to confess.
almost all interrogations last less than one hour.
64% of suspects interrogated after they waive their rights incriminated themselves.

We know that there are false confessions, what DONT WE KNOW?

how often they occur/how often they lead to wrongful convictions/how much social harm they cause

Interrogations leading to confessions

arent recorded in most cases

currently only two states require;

officers to videotape interrogations.

arguments in favor for video taping:

1. it creates an objective, reviewable record.
2. it enhances jurors and judges assessment of credibility by providing a complete record
3.it provides judges and juries with a more accurate picture of what was said, bc words can convert different meanings depending on the intonation.
4. it improves the quality of police work by providing both good and bad examples for training police interrogations.
5. it preserves judicial resources by discouraging defendants from raising frivolous pretrial challenges to confessions.

arguments against video taping

1. the cost is significant
2.it interferes with interrogation techniques
3.suspects may be reluctant to speak in front of cameras

The right to remain silent( against self incrimination) is?

ancient and controversial;
1. jesus invoked it
2.talmudic law commanded it

The U.S. supreme court has relied on three provision in the constitution to develop rules to control police interrogations and confessions;

1. the fourteenth amendment due process clause
2. the sixth amendment right to counsel clause
3.The fifth amendment self incriminating clause

The due process approach

1. due process approach is that all confessions must be voluntary or theyre not reliable.
2.the reliability rationale for due process approach is that admitting unreliable evidence to prove guilt denies defendants the right to their lives, liberty, and/or property without due process of law.
3.According to the accusatory system rationale, forced confessions violate due process even if theyre true; under our system, the government alone has the burden of proving guilt.

CHAPTER 8 OUTLINE

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