Category: Confessions

Extending the Right to Counsel?

In the “class participation” section of my comic, commenter G. T. Bogosian this morning asked: Why does the supreme court keep guaranteeing that we have a right to counsel, but only in situations that almost never come up in real life? Is there some guiding constitutional interpretive philosophy that explains...

An Unnecessary Rule: FBI Memo on Mirandizing Terror Suspects is a Waste of Paper

So on Thursday the WSJ reported that the Obama administration has changed the rules of investigating terror suspects, to permit interrogation without Miranda warnings in certain circumstances: A Federal Bureau of Investigation memorandum reviewed by The Wall Street Journal says the policy applies to “exceptional cases” where investigators “conclude that...

Right for the Wrong Reasons: Why terrorists and enemy combatants don’t belong in civilian criminal courts

Last week, the House passed a bill that would prevent the federal government from prosecuting Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts (by cutting off the funds to do so).  The Senate is now considering it as part of the 1,900-page omnibus spending bill.  This is largely seen as a reaction to...

Why Innocent People Confess — Update

Last month, we wrote a piece here on reasons why innocent people wind up confessing to crimes they didn’t commit.  It’s a horrible thought, yet it happens far too often.  (For tips on defending cases involving a confession, see our CLE lecture over at West Legal Ed Center.) Anyway, there’s a...

Temporary Incomprehension

The blawgosphere was atwitter recently over that Kentucky murder trial where the defendant had confessed, but claimed it was a false confession, due to “sleep-deprived psychosis” from drinking too much coffee.  The jury didn’t buy it (here’s a short article on it). Did that case remind anyone else of this...