Many inculpatory statements (admitting guilt), admitted by
the court does not end the discussion.
To often criminal defense attorneys will file a miranda motion to
exclude the statement from being admitted into evidence, but fail to argue to
the judge or jury, whatever the case may be, that the statement, although
admissible, is not reliable. What do I
mean by that? Reliability simply means
whether the statement is truthful. Most
laymen would be shocked to learn that a large majority of suspects admit to crimes
for which they are innocent, and that the confession is false. Most people would be shocked to learn that
innocent people often admit to crimes which they did not commit.
People confession to crimes for various reasons, both for practical
(which they later learned was not practical), or for psychological
reasons. Most often it is a combination
of the too.
In 25-years of criminal practice this New Jersey criminal defense attorney
has experienced a large number of defendants who had confessed to a crime or
unlawful conduct in which they were innocent.
In fact, because of the sophistication of the jury and the fact that
took their reasonable doubt oath seriously, they recognized that the confession
was false, and entered verdicts of not guilty. .
To begin this discussion we must start with the suspect’s
first encounter with law enforcement. The suspect being confronted with law
enforcement questioning experience various emotions which sometimes lead to the
idea that the quickest way out of the situation is to tell the cop what he
wants to hear, cooperate, and he will give me a brake. Of the course the brake
never comes and the suspect is cuffed and every charge that the cop can think
of will be charged.
The emotions that the suspect faces, especially a suspect
who has never had any previous encounter with law enforcement, are numerous,
such as jail, having to post bail, embarrassment, fear, anxiety, intimidation
by the questioning cop, psychological and physical pressure by the cop, having
to tell family and spouse, expense of hiring a lawyer, the loss of a job or
profession, divorce, loss of child custody, publicity, notifying ones employer
and embarrassment of co-workers finding out, which all lead to the false
conclusion that the best way to eliminate all or some of these future problems
is telling the cop what he wants to hear.
In addition, it is not unheard of for a law enforcement to
use physical coercion. Such as a suspect
being dragged out of his home in the freezing cold without a coat or cuffed
outside in the cold sitting outside on a sidewalk, until a confession or
consent to search is obtained from the suspect.
In New Jersey
our courts have long recognized that sometimes people confess to crimes that
they did not commit. Even if the trial court
admits a confession the State must still produce at trial, “independent proof
of facts and circumstances which strengthen or bolster the confession and tend
to generate a belief in its trustworthiness, plus independent proof of loss or
injury.” (such as a dead body or injured victim). State v. Lucas, 30 N.J. 37, 56
(1959) This requirement is to help
insure that an innocent man is not convicted “solely out of his own mouth of a
crime that never occurred or a crime committed by someone else.” State v. Johnson, 31 N.J. 489, 502-503 (1960)
Lastly, the failure of a trial court to advise a jury of
this requirement, that the confession must be corroborative, will result in a
reversal of the conviction. State
v. Roach, 146 N.J.
208, 229 (1996)
Before you
decide in hiring a criminal defense attorney who should carefully review the
lawyers qualifications, experience and professional results before you make
this important decision.
Quote and thought for the day:
“It is not enough to demand justice.
Justice, as Our Lord taught, is to be hungered and thirsted after as a means of
wellbeing. Just as hunger and thirst can never be forever satisfied in this
life, neither can the requirement for the divine gift of justice.” Sean
Fitzpatrick
277 North Broad Street
P.O. Box 261
Elizabeth (Union County), New Jersey 07207
Office
Phone No. (908) 354-7006
Cell Phone
No. (201) 240-5716
Dated: February 5, 2015
