5 ms·

If you give up a confession when confronted with inadmissible evidence that should not be brought before a court, should the confession count as admissible?

by nagrom 12y ago

refurb 12y ago
Under our current system... yes. Cops can lie to you to extract a confession.
- Alupis 12y ago
  "Anything you say can and will be used against you a court of law..." means exactly that. Anything you say will be used against you, and will never be used to help you. Even if you talk and it would "help" your case, it will be thrown out as "hearsay".[1] [1] "In Praise of the Fifth Amendment Right to Not Be a Witness Against Yourself": http://youtu.be/6wXkI4t7nuc http://youtu.be/6wXkI4t7nuc
- mentat 12y ago
  It's best to assume that cops will lie to you. I sat on a jury for a murder trial where the defendant confessed while high. His lawyer was totally incompetent as well, but the confession pretty much did him in.
PhasmaFelis 12y ago
A public defender of my acquaintance has a client who's in prison for a murder he definitely did not commit, because the police showed him a bunch of entirely falsified evidence, snowed him into thinking he'd gone crazy and then forgotten afterwards, and took down his bewildered "I guess I did do it" as a confession.
- schoen 12y ago
  That's incredibly disturbing. I guess a lot of the criminal justice system has a bedrock, usually unstated, assumption that people know what they did and didn't do. That assumption is already questionable some of the time, but I suppose falls apart further when evidence can be fabricated to an extent that makes defendants doubt their sanity. I wonder if this will occur more frequently in an era when people can start to create highly realistic video that appears to be of a particular person performing a particular act (so someone can show you full-blown "surveillance camera footage" of you doing something that you didn't do).
  - alan_cx 12y ago
    From the little I understand of psychology, essentially all you need to do is get the accused to doubt their memory, then push them over the edge. Consequently, I think that high quality CCTV wouldn't be necessary. A blurry hint would be enough to convince a softened defendant.
- alan_cx 12y ago
  FWIW, here in the UK we have an entertainer called Derren Brown. He specializes in psychological "magic". A while ago he did a show where he set up a punter to believe he had committed murder. The mark reacted exactly as your friend client. IIRC, he actually gave himself up to the police, really believing was guilty. IMO, very disturbing and going by the TV episode, even though Im sure it didnt show everything, too simple. If any one is interested in tracking it down, Derren Brown - The Experiments. Episode The Guilt Trip. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Derren_Brown#Derren_Brown:_The_Experiments_.282011.29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Derren_Brown#D... Added: Sorry, the point is that Im shocked that you are saying your police actually do this, in this way. When watching these shows its easy to assume that there is some extra trickery going on, so it cant happen to a real person in real life. Your case shows that it can.
  - shawabawa3 12y ago
    I have long lost trust that anything Derren Brown does is legit. I was already suspicious it was bullshit and then he "predicted" the lottery numbers I now have no reason to believe any of it is anything but actors and TV magic
    - solistice 12y ago
      Well, i found the explaination of him winning against a group of chess grandmasters by playing them against each other and only playing the weakest player quite convincing, and memorizing 10 moves as well as playing a good game of chess isn't really too far out there. The little bit of predictive magic with the number of pieces is almost certainly trickery though.
fleitz 12y ago
The confession is admissible as evidence, it doesn't result in an automatic conviction. Now that the defence knows about the stingray they will paint the rest of the case as fruit from the poison tree. They just need a reason to call the officer and ask about the stingray. The prosecutor can't withdraw the defences' questions. The defence will merely reintroduce the evidence as evidence of police misconduct, this isn't going away anytime soon.

If you give up a confession when confronted with inadmissible evidence that should not be brought before a court, should the confession count as admissible?

by nagrom 12y ago

If you give up a confession when confronted with inadmissible evidence that should not be brought before a court, should the confession count as admissible?

refurb 12y ago

Under our current system... yes. Cops can lie to you to extract a confession.

Alupis 12y ago
"Anything you say can and will be used against you a court of law..." means exactly that. Anything you say will be used against you, and will never be used to help you. Even if you talk and it would "help" your case, it will be thrown out as "hearsay".[1] [1] "In Praise of the Fifth Amendment Right to Not Be a Witness Against Yourself": http://youtu.be/6wXkI4t7nuc http://youtu.be/6wXkI4t7nuc
mentat 12y ago
It's best to assume that cops will lie to you. I sat on a jury for a murder trial where the defendant confessed while high. His lawyer was totally incompetent as well, but the confession pretty much did him in.

PhasmaFelis 12y ago

A public defender of my acquaintance has a client who's in prison for a murder he definitely did not commit, because the police showed him a bunch of entirely falsified evidence, snowed him into thinking he'd gone crazy and then forgotten afterwards, and took down his bewildered "I guess I did do it" as a confession.

schoen 12y ago
That's incredibly disturbing. I guess a lot of the criminal justice system has a bedrock, usually unstated, assumption that people know what they did and didn't do. That assumption is already questionable some of the time, but I suppose falls apart further when evidence can be fabricated to an extent that makes defendants doubt their sanity. I wonder if this will occur more frequently in an era when people can start to create highly realistic video that appears to be of a particular person performing a particular act (so someone can show you full-blown "surveillance camera footage" of you doing something that you didn't do).
- alan_cx 12y ago
  From the little I understand of psychology, essentially all you need to do is get the accused to doubt their memory, then push them over the edge. Consequently, I think that high quality CCTV wouldn't be necessary. A blurry hint would be enough to convince a softened defendant.
alan_cx 12y ago
FWIW, here in the UK we have an entertainer called Derren Brown. He specializes in psychological "magic". A while ago he did a show where he set up a punter to believe he had committed murder. The mark reacted exactly as your friend client. IIRC, he actually gave himself up to the police, really believing was guilty. IMO, very disturbing and going by the TV episode, even though Im sure it didnt show everything, too simple. If any one is interested in tracking it down, Derren Brown - The Experiments. Episode The Guilt Trip. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Derren_Brown#Derren_Brown:_The_Experiments_.282011.29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Derren_Brown#D... Added: Sorry, the point is that Im shocked that you are saying your police actually do this, in this way. When watching these shows its easy to assume that there is some extra trickery going on, so it cant happen to a real person in real life. Your case shows that it can.
- shawabawa3 12y ago
  I have long lost trust that anything Derren Brown does is legit. I was already suspicious it was bullshit and then he "predicted" the lottery numbers I now have no reason to believe any of it is anything but actors and TV magic
  - solistice 12y ago
    Well, i found the explaination of him winning against a group of chess grandmasters by playing them against each other and only playing the weakest player quite convincing, and memorizing 10 moves as well as playing a good game of chess isn't really too far out there. The little bit of predictive magic with the number of pieces is almost certainly trickery though.

fleitz 12y ago

The confession is admissible as evidence, it doesn't result in an automatic conviction. Now that the defence knows about the stingray they will paint the rest of the case as fruit from the poison tree. They just need a reason to call the officer and ask about the stingray. The prosecutor can't withdraw the defences' questions. The defence will merely reintroduce the evidence as evidence of police misconduct, this isn't going away anytime soon.