Court Cases: Case Study

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How does a court determine if the confession or statement is given voluntarily? Can you also provide an example of when a statement is not given voluntarily? The way that the court system decides whether or not police have obtained a statement or confession unwillingly and involuntarily by a person is the use of the ‘totality of the circumstances test.’ The court will look at the whole picture or all of the circumstances; they take into consideration several factors. The first factor is ‘Suspect vulnerabilities’: What is the age of the suspect? Are they young or old? Are the educated or do they have a mental disability? Or maybe did the suspect have a physical condition that would make them vulnerable. They question whether the suspect was an alcoholic or a drug addict or even a smoker. Any of those would mean that if withheld any of these, the suspect would eventually need a fix and because irritable and vulnerable to severe police interrogation, and lead to a confession or statement that could incriminate them, just so they could have a fix. Of course I highly doubt they would get an alcoholic beverage from the police after an interrogation, but the point of the matter is that if police officers deny any person their liberty, life or property, i.e. left in extreme heat, no water, no food, the person was deprived of…show more content…
Pate. A mentally handicapped 19 year old was arrested for suspicion of stealing bikes. The police interrogated him for four days in large groups, with the teen’s hearing aid, he was sick, he wasn’t being adequately fed, and he was without council or his parents. After four days he confessed to being part of a murder, and was sentenced to 199 years. The court did recognize however that the boy was coerced and that the state violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by using his written statements as evidence in his

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