8.16 - A. Where Suppression Motion Is Denied

• Jurisdiction: New York

a. Where Suppression Motion Is Denied

Even if a hearing court denies the defendant’s motion to suppress the statement and rules the statement admissible at trial as part of the People’s direct case, the defendant can get a second bite of the apple. Under New York law, if the defendant properly raises the issue through evidence at trial,¹⁵⁵⁴ the defense can argue, this time to the trial jury, that the defendant’s statement was involuntarily made and therefore should be disregarded.¹⁵⁵⁵ Where the defense makes such an argument to the jury, the fact that the hearing judge has ruled otherwise cannot be brought to the jury’s attention.¹⁵⁵⁶ Moreover, the trial court must instruct the jurors to disregard the defendant’s pretrial statement if they find that it was involuntarily made.¹⁵⁵⁷

In the same vein, if the defense requests it, the court must submit to the jurors on the issue of voluntariness the questions of whether the defendant requested counsel before or during the interrogation¹⁵⁵⁸ and whether the defendant received any Miranda warnings.¹⁵⁵⁹ On the other hand, the issue of whether the Miranda warnings were adequately...