Can The Police Lie To You During An Interrogation Regarding A Crime?
A lot of people come to me and say hey, the police lied to me. I don't think that's fair. They ended up getting a confession out of me, which should be thrown out because they lied to me.
The bottom line is, and I say it a lot all the time for twenty-five years, the police are in the competitive business of ferreting out crime, and they can do what's necessary – obviously within the bounds of the law – to do that.
That's something that the former late Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice, said about that ferreting out crime part. So, yes. They can lie to you, and they lie all the time.
I deal with the police lying, either on the witness stand or to my clients, and nobody likes it. It's not fair. However, the bottom line is that they can do that as they attempt to get a confession or evidence during a criminal case.
Now, how does that play with Miranda rights? That would probably be the next question. Miranda refers to when you're in custody, and the police start asking you direct questions – especially in a police-dominated environment like a police station, in the back of a police car, etc. – they have to read you your Miranda rights.
They have to give you the right to an attorney. They have to provide you with the right to remain silent, and if they tell you you can't afford an attorney, you're entitled to get one – so all of those Miranda rights apply. They have to give those to you as long as you're in custody and being asked questions.
That doesn't have anything to do with whether they lie to you. I had a big murder case and got a not-guilty verdict on a Norwalk case.
They lied to my client in the interrogation. They said look, we have video footage of you shooting and killing the victim. We want to know why you did it. So, that's something we talk about all the time – about the police lying – and sometimes they successfully get the defendant to admit things.
Other times, they can't. Sometimes, we can turn that lie around on them and say look, they lied to the guy and told him something, and he still didn't admit the crime because he's innocent.
Multiple Defendants
One of the police's biggest tactics is lying to people, and they have all kinds of effective ways to do that. Another lie that I see them use is when they grab two defendants in a case.
They say, hey, look, your buddy just told you that you're the one that planned the whole crime. We don't know if we believe that. We want to hear your version of events. Now you have friends or crimes telling on each other, and that just killed both of them, and they both end up getting convicted for the crime.
So, that's another lie they will perpetrate on people – telling people they have video of the crime is a good one that they hit them with—telling that witnesses have identified them. All sorts of things. Telling them they have phone records and wiretaps, for example, with them indicating incriminating things, is another tactic they use.
So, they can lien, and it just depends on the circumstance, how effective the lie can be, and whether or not there's some angle that the criminal defense attorney can take to use that lie to either up-end the case by way of some motion or Miranda issue or to use that lie to show that the police are not playing fair.
They're not doing the right thing in the case. If the police are necessary to get that conviction, the police's credibility, and the police as percipient witnesses, those lies can sometimes come back to haunt the police.
So, if you have a case in which the police lied to you or a loved one, and you're concerned about it and want some advice, come in and sit down with me.
We'll go over everything. I'll give you my twenty-five years of experience. We'll talk about the case, and we'll decide whether the lie is just good police work or something we can capitalize on to get your loved one off the case or get you off the case because of how the police handled the investigation and the lack of credibility.
