Law of Interrogations and Confessions

The Law of Interrogations and Confessions traces the evolution of the primary approaches that U.S. courts have taken to regulating the interrogation of suspects by law enforcement officers. It examines the due process approach to the voluntariness of statements; the short-lived “focus of the investigation” test of Escobedo v. Illinois; the landmark Fifth Amendment approach announced in Miranda v. Arizona; and the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel approach to regulating the “deliberate elicitation” of incriminating statements. Henry F. Fradella’s authoritative book focuses on lower court interpretations of leading U.S. Supreme Court precedents with regard to issues such as determining when someone is in “custody” and subject to “interrogation” for Fifth Amendment purposes; the form, manner, and timing of Miranda warnings; the impact of multiple interrogations; the validity and scope of expressed and implied waivers; and the counters of Sixth Amendment protections to preserve suspects’ rights to counsel in the interrogation context after formal criminal proceedings have been initiated.