Miranda Warnings and Confessions

If you have confessed to a crime after being arrested and you were not read your Fifth Amendment Miranda rights our New York Criminal Defense Lawyers can help you get your confession thrown out. Criminal defendants are often intimidated, threatened, and tricked into confessing to crimes. Confessions are often extracted from defendants using coercive and oppressive tactics. The Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination protects you from the police and prohibits them from bullying, harassing, or beating you into confessing to crimes that you did not commit. The Fifth Amendment also gives you the right to remain silent in the face of police questioning or wait until your lawyer arrives before you speak to the police.

Our experienced New York criminal defense attorneys can challenge your confession under the Fifth Amendment and the Miranda rule.

At Tilem & Associates our attorneys have successfully argued hundreds of motions seeking to suppress statements based upon constitutional violations. These motions often result in the Court ordering that a Huntley Hearing be held.

In the state of New York, every time a criminal defendant enters what is legally known as “custody”, they must be read their Miranda rights before the police may question them. The Miranda warnings advise a person of the following rights: the right to remain silent, that anything said may be used against them in court, that they have a right to consult an attorney and for one to be consulted before and during interrogation, that if they cannot afford an attorney that one will be appointed for them, that at any time the person can ask that the interrogation stop and it will be stopped, and that at any time they want to speak to their attorney and that attorney is not present the interrogation must stop until the attorney is present. Miranda warnings must only be given when a suspect has been placed into custody and is being asked questions by the police. The legal meaning of custodial interrogation is that the suspect must not be free to leave, and they must be questioned by the police. Even when a person has been put into custody and is not free to leave, should they confess without being questioned, the confession cannot be challenged using the Fifth Amendment. Similarly, if a suspect is brought to a police station and voluntarily submits to police questioning, there is no Miranda requirement, and any confession may be admitted into evidence.

Another important point of caution is that merely staying silent is not enough to trigger the rights protected by the Miranda warning. Without actually invoking the right to remain silent or the right for an attorney to be present during questioning, the police can and will continue to barrage a suspect with questions until they confess. These coercive situations can place people in rooms where they are left handcuffed to tables with no natural light or food for hours at a time, or repeatedly woken up for questioning without adequate sleep. Without specifically saying “I invoke my right to remain silent” or “I invoke my right for an attorney to be present with me during my questioning” you are not protected from continued interrogation.

If you believe that the police illegally extracted a confession from you and you want to challenge that confession call our experienced New York criminal defense lawyers today. Our experienced New York criminal defense lawyers can challenge your confession under the Fifth Amendment and the Miranda rule. If your confession is excluded from being introduced in the prosecution’s case in chief, you may very well improve the outcome of your case. Call us today for a free consultation.