Legal Updates Summer 2016

Written By: Reid
Jul 30, 2016
The Legal Updates Summer 2016 column contains cases which address the following issues:
  • In New York no adverse instruction required if police do not electronically record the interrogation
  • The value of videotaping: determining the extent to which a mental impairment can render a Miranda waiver ineffective
  • Is a hospitalized defendant necessarily in custody?
  • Manipulative tactics (lying about evidence; lying about the victim being a federal informant; lying about his friends naming him as the shooter) did not render the confession inadmissible
  • Confession voluntariness: an excellent example from an FBI interrogation
  • Court rejects the testimony of Dr. Allison Redlich on false confession issues
  • Court restricts the testimony of Dr. Richard Leo on false confession issues
  • 26-hour period of videotaped interrogation was not coercive
  • Defense expert on false confession issues should have been allowed to testify
  • Failure to acknowledge unambiguous request to talk to a lawyer renders confession inadmissible
  • Court rules that the investigators went too far in lying to the defendant about evidence and insisting that he confess
  • Court rejects expert testimony that defendant suffered from mental impairment that rendered him uniquely susceptible to coercive police tactics
  • Using deception during the interrogation of a defendant classified as mentally retarded is not coercive
  • The confession of Brendan Dassey ("Making a Murderer") ruled to be involuntary
  • It is proper to introduce as evidence the videotaped interrogation of the defendant when no incriminating statements were made?
  • Court rules defense expert testimony on the credibility of the victim inadmissible
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