Can My Confession Be Thrown Out in Arizona?

Many people assume that once they have “confessed,” the case is over. It is not. Arizona courts throw out confessions regularly when police cross the line. Whether your statement can be suppressed depends on how it was obtained.

A Confession Is Not Automatically Admissible

Before a confession can be used against you, it has to pass constitutional muster. The State bears the burden of proving your statement was lawfully obtained and voluntary. If it cannot, the confession is suppressed and the jury never hears it.

Ground One: Miranda Violations

If police interrogated you in custody without a proper Miranda warning, or kept questioning you after you asked for a lawyer or invoked your right to silence, your resulting statements can be excluded. Continuing to question someone who has clearly invoked their rights is one of the most common ways confessions get suppressed.

Ground Two: The Confession Was Involuntary

Even with a Miranda warning, a confession must be voluntary. Under the Due Process Clause, courts look at the totality of the circumstances to decide whether your will was overborne. Red flags include:

• Threats, physical force, or intimidation;
• Improper promises of leniency (“just admit it and you can go home”);
• Extremely long or overnight interrogations without breaks, food, or sleep;
• Deprivation of counsel after a clear request.

A confession produced by coercion is unreliable and unconstitutional, no matter what it says.

Ground Three: Fruit of an Illegal Arrest or Search

If your confession followed an unlawful arrest or an illegal search, it may be suppressed as the fruit of the poisonous tree. When the police conduct that led to your statement was itself illegal, the statement can be tainted and excluded.

Ground Four: You Could Not Knowingly Waive Your Rights

A valid waiver of your rights must be knowing and intelligent. Serious intoxication, a mental health condition or intellectual disability, or being a juvenile can all undermine whether you truly understood and voluntarily gave up your rights, which can render the confession inadmissible.

How Confessions Get Suppressed: The Hearing

Your lawyer files a motion to suppress and the court holds a hearing (sometimes called a voluntariness hearing). Detectives testify, the recorded interrogation is reviewed, and the judge decides whether the State met its burden. Modern interrogations are usually recorded, and that video is often where a coerced or improperly obtained confession is exposed.

Even a True Confession Can Be Thrown Out

This surprises people: the question is not whether your statement was true, but whether it was obtained lawfully. If police violated your rights to get it, the confession can be suppressed even if you did say those words.

Related Reading

• When Do Police Have to Read You Your Rights?
• What Happens If Police Search Your House Illegally
• Probable Cause vs. Reasonable Suspicion in Arizona
• Can Police Search Your Car Without a Warrant?
• Arizona Criminal Defense

Frequently Asked Questions