UNIT 23

► Ex. I. Scan through the text. Restore the word order in the questions that follow and answer them.

Interrogation and confession. The interrogation of suspected persons is an important aspect of the investigation of offenses. Usually the aim of the questioning is to obtain an admission of the offense that will lead eventually to a plea of guilty and avoid the need for a contested trial. All English-language countries place restrictions on the methods of interrogation in order to ensure that suspects are not coerced into confessions by unacceptable means. In the United States any suspect who is being interrogated in custody must be offered the services of a lawyer, at the expense of the state if he cannot afford to pay, and failure to advise the suspect of this right results in the rejection of a confession as evidence. English law follows the same general

principle, that a person suspected or accused of a criminal offense is not at any stage in the process of investigation or trial obliged to answer any question or to give evidence. For many years the law relating to confessions in England consisted of a simple rule prohibiting the admission as evidence at trial of any involuntary statement made by an accused person. The investigating police officer is to administer to the suspect a caution that he was not obliged to answer any question and that anything he did say might be given in evidence at his trial. This caution was required to be given at the beginning of any period of interrogation and immediately before the suspect began to make a statement or confession. Failure to give the caution at the right time or in the right form did not necessarily mean that the statement would be excluded from evidence, but it did give the trial judge the discretion to exclude the evidence if he considered it just to do so. A confession by an accused person may be admitted in evidence provided that the court is satisfied that the confession was not obtained by oppression of the person who made it. Oppression is defined to include torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the use or threat of violence.