Word: confessionalism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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As often happens in great constitutional dramas, the starring player was a nobody: Danny Escobedo, 26, 5 ft. 5 in., 106 Ibs., a Chicago laborer serving 20 years for first-degree murder. Like most convicts, Danny was sure he had taken a bum rap. In his case, the Supreme Court...
In almost record time the Supreme Court has been forced to face the task of clarifying its own opinion by accepting five new confession cases. They raise six vital issues: 1) When do a suspect's constitutional rights begin? 2) Must police inform him of those rights? 3) Does...
Police Pigeon. No one is more anxious for the court to make up its mind than Danny Escobedo, a prime target of Chicago cops ever since the state dropped its case against him in 1964 for lack of any other evidence except his invalid confession. In prison, Danny wrote poetry...
Highest Evidence. The hope is that such questions will lead to voluntary confessions, which have always been highly valued in U.S. courts. Whether it is the spontaneous blurt, the "threshold" confession immediately after the crime or the arrest ("Officer, I just killed my wife"), or the eventual uncoerced admission made...
For all that, added Frankfurter, the confession system has "manifest evils." One is "the threat that a police system which has grown to rely too heavily on interrogation will not pursue or learn other crime-detection methods, and the consequent danger that police will feel themselves under pressure to secure...