The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, § 9 of Florida’s Constitution guarantee every person the right not to be “compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”
This has come to be known as the “right to remain silent” and is familiar to most people through its frequent inclusion in so many TV shows and movies. But sometimes, knowing your rights is easier than having the presence of mind to exercise those rights, especially if law enforcement officers use interrogation methods they know will often produce confessions.
This blog post will explain how false and coerced confessions happen, why they are not as rare as people assume, and what the law requires for a confession to be admitted into evidence in a criminal trial. We at Stechschulte Nell are extremely concerned about the frequency with which young and unsophisticated arrestees admit to criminal conduct they did not commit.
By educating our community about this issue, we hope to encourage people to claim their right to remain silent until they meet with the lawyer they have a constitutional right to see before answering any questions.
What Is a False Confession?
A false confession is one in which a person admits to facts implicating them in crimes they did not commit. The common social reaction to the idea that someone would confess to a crime they didn’t commit is disbelief — “Why would anyone admit to something they didn’t do?”
In our criminal justice system, there are several pressures that would encourage someone to accept responsibility for something they were innocent of.
- The person has developmental disabilities or mental illness, including excessive anxiety, low self-esteem, low IQ, or delusional thinking.
- Investigators lied to the person or used tactics likely to encourage them to accept responsibility for others’ acts.
- The person was psychologically abused or subject to implied or situational threats during interrogation.
- Physical abuse or threats.
- To cover for another person who is actually guilty.
- To acquiesce in a negotiated plea bargain to avoid more severe penalties.
These situations can and have produced false confessions. Some were made voluntarily to divert police attention from a loved one, others were the result of police persuasion that the person would receive favorable treatment if they confessed, and still, others were offered merely to comply with police demands.
What Is a Coerced Confession?
Coerced confessions are given in response to improper police pressure or manipulation. They may be true or false, but these confessions are not given “freely and voluntarily.”
Coercion refers to a wide variety of police conduct that could be created by the interrogation environment, like being seated in a small room surrounded by several standing men while handcuffed to a wall during hours of questioning. Access to a bathroom is sometimes denied, or food and drink are withheld.
Physical threats and psychological abuse can become so unbearable to a sensitive suspect that they will say anything to get out of the situation, believing they will be able to disavow the statement later. Police have been known to deprive suspects of sleep or a withdrawing drug-addicted person of medical treatment.
Other forms of improper coercion involve threatening to bring meritless criminal charges against a spouse or a parent if the suspect refuses to confess. The threatened arrest and processing of the loved one would trigger children being removed from the home by state child welfare authorities, causing the suspect to agree with police in order to spare their family a traumatic experience.
Some coerced confessions are obtained more subtly by convincing a person with a limited memory that they actually did commit the crime by filling in small details they persuade the person they may have forgotten. In some cases, especially in cases where an injury to a child is unexplained, police may suggest that a parent inflicted the injury innocently without appreciating the extent of the force they used. These situations often encourage parents or child caregivers to guess or theorize how the injury may have happened.
Are Coerced Confessions Admissible in Court?
The law requires that any confession offered as evidence against a defendant in court be given “freely and voluntarily.” If the confession were obtained from the defendant when they were in police custody, the confession is not admissible unless the defendant was first advised of and understood their constitutional right to remain silent, to speak with a free lawyer before answering police questions, and that everything they say will be used against them in court.
The problem in most cases of false and coerced confessions is the defendant’s inability to disprove the police claims that the confession was offered freely and voluntarily.
Police will not freely admit that they used coercive techniques to wrangle a confession out of the suspect. They will not relate to the court that they asked leading questions of a pliable suspect to give them information consistent with the evidence already collected.
Skilled Criminal Defense Lawyers Work to Exclude False and Coerced Confessions
At Stechschulte Nell, Attorneys at Law here in Tampa, we investigate every possible avenue in which we might discover evidence disputing the voluntariness of our client’s confession. We consider whether the client was sober, awake, and alert during the interrogation. Were they intimidated by the physical environment of the interview or by any of the behavior of the detectives? We explore whether they were yelled at, how long the questioning persisted, whether there were any breaks, and whether they were given food, drink, bathroom access, and sleep.
Beyond that, it is important to find out if our client has any mental or developmental disabilities and whether they suffer from any physical or systemic illness that might have interfered with their awareness of the questions and answers. These and many other strategies are essential to ensure that the defendant’s statement offered into evidence by the prosecution was truly obtained legally.
See More > The Real Facts About Choosing a Defense Attorney
Tampa Criminal Defense
If you or your loved one is charged with a crime and provided a statement to police in which guilty is admitted, contact an experienced criminal defense lawyer to examine your case. You may not be aware that the confession was obtained by methods violating the law.
We are on your side. Contact Stechschulte Nell Law at 813-280-1244 for a case review today.
