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RESEARCH
The defendant was arrested for robbery. The officers took him to the station house and questioned him about the crime. The defendant asked to call either his wife or his attorney. The police officers told him that he could do so once he had “cooperated.” The defendant then made several incriminating statements.
Whether the defendant’s statements were voluntarily made?
No. The defendant’s statements were made in an atmosphere dominated by substantial
coercion.
The test of admissibility of a suspect’s statement is whether it was made freely, voluntarily and without compulsion or inducement of any sort. The issue of coercion or improper inducement can only be determined by examining “all the attendant circumstances,” or, the “totality of the circumstances.” As the suspect had initially resisted giving any kind of statement, and only made statements after repeated denials of his request to contact his wife or attorney, the Court held that the defendant did not voluntarily make the statements.
373 U.S. 503, 83 S. Ct. 1336 (1963)
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