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Series

Criminal Procedure

Confessions

University of Cincinnati College of Law

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Law

Shining The Bright Light On Police Interrogation In America, Mark A. Godsey Jan 2009

Shining The Bright Light On Police Interrogation In America, Mark A. Godsey

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article reviews Richard A. Leo’s book 'Police Interrogation and American Justice.' Prior to entering legal academia, Leo served as an associate professor of psychology and criminology, and performed groundbreaking empirical research into how police interrogators obtain confessions and how their interrogation techniques affect suspects. His body of work shines the bright light on police interrogation in American today. Leo depicts the values and structure of interrogation in a way that few, outside of the actual subjects/victims of interrogation, fully understand. Although I do not agree with all of his conclusions and proposed reforms, his work convincingly raises a point …


Reformulating The Miranda Warnings In Light Of Contemporary Law And Understandings, Mark A. Godsey Jan 2006

Reformulating The Miranda Warnings In Light Of Contemporary Law And Understandings, Mark A. Godsey

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Since Miranda v. Arizona was decided in 1966, much scholarly attention has been devoted to both the theoretical underpinnings and the real world impact of that decision. Little attention, however, has been paid to the substance or content of the warnings. The Supreme Court has often stated that the Miranda warnings requirement is a prophylactic rule that can change and evolve. However, in spite of 40 years of legal developments and practical experience, the content of these famous four warnings has never been modified or even been subjected to systematic scrutiny.

This Article proposes that the substance of the Miranda …


Rethinking The Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward A Workable Test For Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, Mark A. Godsey Jan 2005

Rethinking The Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward A Workable Test For Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, Mark A. Godsey

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

For more than a century, the Supreme Court has interpreted the Bill of Rights as prohibiting the police from obtaining involuntary confessions from suspects through the use of coercion. If asked whether this involuntary confession rule is an understandable and workable doctrine, however, a noticeable percentage of judges, prosecutors, police officers, criminal defense attorneys and law professors would answer with an unequivocal no.

Basic questions concerning voluntariness and free will - whether it exists, and if so, when it exists, etc. - have puzzled philosophers for centuries and represent one of history's Gordian knots. Not surprisingly, judges have fared no …


Broken Promises And Involuntary Confessions: May A State Introduce Incriminating Statements Made By A Defendant As A Result Of Promises In A Plea Bargain Agreement If The Defendant Breaches That Agreement?, Bradford Mank Jan 1988

Broken Promises And Involuntary Confessions: May A State Introduce Incriminating Statements Made By A Defendant As A Result Of Promises In A Plea Bargain Agreement If The Defendant Breaches That Agreement?, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

There is a substantial constitutional question concerning whether admissions made pursuant to a plea bargain that the defendant has breached are admissible under the fifth amendment's privilege against compelled self-incrimination or the due process clauses of the fifth and fourteenth amendments. Courts have reached conflicting results in regard to whether such statements are voluntary.lo This Article argues that it is difficult to resolve whether such admissions are voluntary because courts have not provided a clear definition as to under what circumstances a confession is voluntary in accordance with the dictates of the fifth and fourteenth amendments.