You are a police officer trying to find a kidnap victim, who has a health problem that requires medical treatment in the next six hours for him to survive. You have located an individual who has admitted to the kidnapping but refuses to provide further information. Your partner says that you should leave the interview room, and he will "encourage" the suspect to talk. You know that your partner
is trying to protect you from an allegation of violating the suspect's rights by using force and threats to compel the information from the suspect. You also know that without this action you will likely not find the kidnap victim in time. What do you do? Does your course of action conform with the law? Why or why not?
What will be an ideal response?
The voluntariness of the confession is determined by the police conduct involved, and conduct sufficient to overcome the will of the suspect given the characteristics of the accused. In this case, the partner is obviously planning to use force to coerce the suspect to divulge information that may save the life of the victim. This would likely render the confession inadmissible at trial if the student or the partner were to disclose this information. On the other hand, the student could leave the room, to allow the partner to get the information to save the life of the victim, and then keep it a secret. If the student, instead, refuses to allow the partner to force the suspect to answer, the innocent victim may die. The student could recommend to the partner that they try some other tactic that was not unconstitutional, but the fundamental tension here, between complying with the law and saving a life, is important to address. It is also possible that the life of the victim is more important in this analysis than a successful conviction. There are many things to discuss, and it is important for the student to wrestle with all of the implications regarding action and inaction in this scenario.
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