34-b-2 Voluntariness

• Library: A Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual (2020 Edition)

34-B-2. Voluntariness

The confession you make to the police must be voluntary in order to be used at your trial.²⁵ The word "voluntary" may be confusing, however, because it actually means is something like "not coerced" in this context.²⁶ To coerce someone means to pressure that person into doing something by the use of force or threats. Several things can make a court decide that your confession was not voluntary. The police cannot use²⁷ or threaten to use²⁸ physical violence in order to get you to confess. If the police threaten to administer a painful medical procedure in an attempt to get you to confess, even though they may be legally entitled to order this procedure, the court may consider the statements you make after this threat to be involuntary.²⁹ Your confession is not likely to be considered involuntary simply because it occurred after the police interrogated you for a long period of time, but if you were subject to a long interrogation and were deprived of food or sleep, your confession may be deemed involuntary.³⁰ Likewise, if you were held in very bad conditions for your interrogation,³¹ courts may find your confession to be involuntary. In addition, the use of deception or promises of leniency in sentencing can sometimes make the confession involuntary.³² If your confession is involuntary (that is, if it has been improperly compelled), it cannot be used at trial for any purpose.³³

25. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 462, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 1621, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 716-17 (1966) (holding that a confession must be excluded where the accused was "involuntarily impelled to make a statement when but for the improper influences he would have remained silent."). In other words, if the police: (1) use incorrect methods, such as using force or threats; and 2) these methods cause a person to confess when he would have otherwise remained silent, then the confession is invalid.

26. See Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 165, 107 S. Ct. 515, 521, 93 L. Ed. 2d 473, 483 (1986) (holding that there must be "an essential link between coercive activity of the State ... and a resulting confession by a defendant" if the evidence is to be excluded).

27. See Brown v. Mississippi, 297 U.S. 278, 56 S. Ct. 461, 80 L. Ed. 682 (1936) (holding that the defendant could not be convicted on the basis of a confession...