I think something that’s being lost here is the need for an alibi. Most people don’t need an alibi. Very few people do. If you are asked for an alibi, you are probably in deeper trouble than you realize, in which case most of the advice above is true. However, if you are asked for one, there is probably some evidence, eyewitness, motive, connection, coincidence, etc that requires it. People who have no connection at all to a crime won’t be asked for an alibi.
The correct answer to “Do you know why I pulled you over?” is “No, Officer, I don’t. Was I doing something wrong?” Your attitude should by helpful and apologetic without being self-incriminating. If your attitude is argumentative, defiant, arrogant, or just un-cooperative, the cop is going to be much more likely to decide you need a ticket rather than just a warning. If you get into a contest with the cop to see which of you can be a bigger asshole, he’s going to win - he can arrest you and you can’t arrest him. So you want to de-escalate the situation.
Ummm…no. I don’t funnel information to the police, and even if I did, I damn sure wouldn’t do it for free. I communicate with the prosecuting attorney, in the course of representing a client accused of a crime. He’s got authority to make a deal. Cops generally don’t–except in some misdemeanor cases on the day the case is set for trial…and even then, the prosecutor is either present or aware of me talking to the cop for my client.
If you’re a witness to a crime, talk to the cops. Tell them what you saw. You don’t need a lawyer to describe the guy you saw robbing the bank while you were in line to cash a check.
The time to not talk to cops is when you have any reason to believe they suspect you of criminal activity.
(bolding mine)
I really wish I could remember where/when I heard the following statement, but alas I cannot. But IMHO, (and IME) it’s a fact.
“You might beat the ‘rap’, but you DON’T beat the ‘ride’.”
In other words, if you act like an asshole, you can be arrested and taken to jail, even though you, AND THE LEO, damned well know that the charges will be dismissed/dropped. :eek:
Actually, one of the points was EXACTLY a truthful alibi.
You said you were in X that night.
What you don’t know is that a person who will present as a very credible witness will testify that she saw YOU at the scene an hour before the crime.
Now, they produce this witness and compare her testimony to your assertion.
It now looks to the jury that you lied about your whereabouts.
IT DOESN’T HELP - IT CAN ONLY HURT
Ergo, don’t talk to the police.
Even more subtly, the witness was being completely truthful (but mistaken) and placed the alibi-having person only in the general area (Verona Beach) as opposed to at the scene of the crime. Her testimony would have been uninteresting (alibi-haver is presumed to live in the area of Verona Beach) except for the fact that it demolishes an alibi.
The video does not presume that all this information won’t come out in time, but argues that you shouldn’t be the first mover if you don’t have to be. And you never have to be. Find out all about the case against you, then decide how you want to defend against it, but don’t take options off the table early by opening your cake-hole.
By contrast, I was a prosecutor for many years in a major metropolitan area, and I can think of many suspects who ceased to be suspects based on what they said in speaking to the police or to me or my colleagues. Obviously, if someone gives an alibi, the police won’t just say, okay, you can go now, but they will check it out, which can not only exonerate you more quickly but can also allow the police to focus much more quickly on the real perpetrator. Nor is it only by giving an alibi that a suspect can, in my experience, help himself.
Note: This is not advice about what you should do; you have to make your own evaluation of the risks and benefits. But this is GQ, after all, and that police officer’s statement should not just be accepted as gospel. In my experience (with the caveat that it’s a big country with many, many different jurisdictions), it is likely either 1) false; 2) true but irrelevant – if he was a police officer and not a detective, he may not have been dealing with investigations where he was evaluating whether to arrest someone, as opposed to arresting someone who has just been pointed out on the street; or 3) technically accurate, but misleading, in the sense that he’s not the one who did the releasing, or the suspect wasn’t “released” because he wasn’t being held, or the “release” was as a result of investigation initiated by what the suspect said, rather than directly based on what the suspect said.
IIRC the rule in Great Britain is that if you don’t pipe up with the alibi right away, the fact that the alibi suddenly appeared a month later and you said nothing when arrested about visiting your grandmother - that detail can be told to the jury.
I don’t believe that is allowed in North America?
Exactly.
“You do not have to say anything. However, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”
(emphasis added)
If you’re innocent, refusing to provide information when stopped by the police is really not a good idea in the UK. Mind you, I think the general perception in this country is still that the police are (generally) on your side. The more I read the SDMB, the more I realise that this really isn’t the perception in America.
Right. The OP didn’t say anything about being arrested or even being in an interrogation room.
I agree that, if you are arrested, time to let your lawyer do all the rest of the talking. And I’m sure that nothing you say will, by itself, get you released.
But that’s way different from telling the detectives something that rules you out of being a suspect way early in the investigation. You don’t need a lawyer to tell the cops knocking on your door that you were the best man at an out of town wedding the night your upstairs neighbor was killed. That kind of thing could get you out of being investigated further (including unpleasant things like having your house searched or getting arrested yourself). I mean, if you’ve got a criminal defense lawyer already on retainer and can afford the fees, I guess, sure, have him present the alibi; if you’re the type of person with a regular defense lawyer, then the cops are already going to be suspicious, so making them talk to your lawyer won’t make them any more suspicious. On the other hand, if a regular joe needs a lawyer to tell the cops they were out of town, the cops may wonder why and start digging more.
Under the Ohio Rules of Criminal procedure, rule 12.1, if a defendant wishes to assert the defense of ALIBI, s/he must give notice.
The same for the fed’s, rule 12.1.
To Loach et alii, I don’t particularly care what the rest of human civilization does. I care about me and my kid not being hauled in and saying something you’ll use against me or him later on. I know it’s your job to get me to say something stupid. Mrs. Cad does interrogations all the time and is 100% because they say something stupid.
And as much as I respect what LEOs do (I have a family full of them), relying on my constitutional rights and making you do your job of finding evidence/eyewitnesses is not my problem.
Well, he does start the story with the scenario of a lawyer (like everyone in the class is hoping to eventually be) being called up by “their client”, saying “the police are here, should I talk?”. So it kind of presupposes some pre-existing relationship between the suspect and the lawyer.
I think that really depends on context. I think there are a lot more American people who think the police are generally on our side than are obvious in a thread like this.
Please don’t judge all Americans by the vocal minority.
After all, my direct exposure to crime scenes and the like is nonexistent-- I’ve never even been pulled over for speeding. So there’s a certain amount of knowledge of my own limitations which makes me less inclined to speak up in threads like this.
Also, I’m white (and female)-- and while I’m not sure the female part matters, I’m pretty damn sure that the white matters. Repeat: I have never been in a situation where I think an African American or Hispanic woman should have or would have been talked to by the police and I wasn’t, but I am certain that there are times and places where being white is to one’s generic advantage in keeping a low profile.
Suggests to me that the advice is highly situational.
That is, in situations where you are likely to want to call up your defense lawyer and ask that question, you should not say anything to the cops.
That leaves much interaction with the cops open to debate. The majority of people do not have a preexisting relationship with a defense lawyer. There clearly could be situations in which a person would want to get one on retainer and fast, but most people being asked questions by the cops aren’t in one of those situations.
Take the common situation of a police officer after a major crime knocking on doors and asking questions of residents. In some neighbourhoods, they are likely to get the response that nobody saw or heard anything, even when somebody was noisily murdered in broad daylight right outside theor doors. In others, they are likely to get full and truthful witness accounts. I would rather live in the second as opposed to the first - and in both neighbourhoods, if someoine was to say "I won’t talk with you until I consult my defense counsel’, strikes me that the cops are going to become a lot more interested in that person, leading to all sorts of hassles for them in the future.
Unless you live on a mountaintop with defensive fighting positions and interlocking fields of fire it is in your best interest to have criminals caught.
Not so much situational as targeted at lawyers rather than you. Assuming that you are a lawyer, “you should tell your client not to talk to the police until you get there” is more universal advice than “you should not talk to the police” is if you are suspect.
But if I’m not a criminal, why should I talk to you if you interrogate me IF you can/may/will use something I say against me? If I am a criminal, why should I talk to you at all and not be silent until my attorney shows up?
PLUS you are using a false dichotomy. Are you really trying to convince me that you need a suspect’s statement to get an arrest or conviction or does it simply make your job easier? I doubt you’re dragging me in to question me if you don’t have some evidence I did the crime and if you don’t have any evidence then why am I being questioned?
As opposed to cops being completely uninterested in you when you say innocently, “Doesn’t surprise me that it happened.” :rolleyes:
Not sure what the disagreement is. I am asserting that the advice of ‘don’t talk to the police’, as a generality, is highly situational and not universal. Obviously, if that advise is comming from your defense counsel, you should take it! 