Coerced Confessions and Offers of Leniency

• Coerced Confessions and Offers of Leniency
• Offers of Leniency and the Fifth Amendment Self-Incrimination and Due Process Clauses

An offer of leniency—actual or implied—made to a criminal suspect is a form of “coercion” that may result in the suppression of any resulting incriminating statements.  What is, and is not, an offer of leniency depends upon the circumstances.

Defendant Anthony Scott Zabelle and another unidentified person assaulted a man referred to only as “Scott” in an attempt to retrieve money allegedly owed by Scott.  In the assault, apparently documented on a surveillance camera from somewhere, defendant came up behind Scott in an alley way and hit him over the head with a glass bottle.  Upon Scott falling to the ground, defendant “stomped on his head.”  Defendant and his unnamed accomplice then rifled through the unconscious Scott’s pockets, taking some personal belongs (a pipe and a knife) and his wallet containing about $100.  Police found the still unconscious Scott in the alley with a two-inch laceration to the back of his head.  The officers tracked defendant down to a nearby motel and took him into ....