Excluding Coerced Witness Testimony to Protect a Criminal Defendant’s Right to Due Process of Law and Adequately Deter Police
Abstract
This Note argues that the Due Process Clause must protect criminal defendants from the admission of an involuntary statement made by a witness. Part I discusses the history of the use of involuntary statements, specifically the justifications for the exclusion of coerced confessions. Part II examines how various courts have addressed the issue and have come to different conclusions. Part III explains why involuntary witness statements should be excluded under the Due Process Clause in criminal trials.
INTRODUCTION
Colin Warner served twenty years in jail for a murder he did not commit his conviction based entirely on the testimony of a scared fourteen year old boy who was coerced by police to implicate Warner Mario Hamilton was shot and killed in April of 1980 in broad daylight near the Erasmus Hall High School in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Thomas Charlemagne stated that he had seen what happened, though in fact he had not. Charlemagne was...