# prosecution based on auto/biographical books **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750 "2018-05-24T19:43:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/21 "2018-05-25T18:53:33Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > If I am on a jury and the police testify that John Doe came into the station and said that at 7:45pm on August 1, 20XX, he injected heroin into his arm, unless John Doe perjures himself and denies the allegation (and even then it is a credibility contest), that is pretty compelling evidence for me. > > Convictions are gained all of the time without tangible physical evidence and based upon only the word of someone (uncorroborated rape allegations for example). But don’t \*admissions \*usually require some corroboration ,at least that a crime has been committed, to be admissible? The uncorroborated rape allegation is different- that’s not an admission. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/22 "2018-05-25T19:00:17Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Because it isn’t retroactive assuming you really don’t have anything on you. Being in your bloodstream doesn’t count. If I swallow a condom filled with heroin, and then walk into a police station and announce that I have just swallowed a condom full of heroin, does that “count?” ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/23 "2018-05-25T20:16:34Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > A written account depending on how detailed and accurate could be used as evidence. It certainly isn’t enough to be probable cause for a warrant. Even an in person confession isn’t enough unless the statements can be tied to other evidence. Not enough for a search warrant, really? Is there a principle that makes it universally not sufficient? If say, a body was found, clearly murdered, and later Joe Feeblebrink accidentally e-mails his diary to someone, with entries that include non-public information about the murder, and a description of where the murder weapon was hidden, that wouldn’t be enough probable cause to do a warrant to search for the weapon in that spot? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/24 "2018-05-25T20:53:37Z")
I, for one, am shocked by the FBI’s ongoing refusal to arrest Mick Jagger after he publicly admitted to killing the Kennedys. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/25 "2018-05-25T21:05:30Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If I swallow a condom filled with heroin, and then walk into a police station and announce that I have just swallowed a condom full of heroin, does that “count?” You’re the lawyer. Why don’t you provide a proper legal answer here in GQ? > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I, for one, am shocked by the FBI’s ongoing refusal to arrest Mick Jagger after he publicly admitted to killing the Kennedys. He named “you” too. Have you been looking over your shoulder all these years? ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/26 "2018-05-25T21:26:54Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Not enough for a search warrant, really? Is there a principle that makes it universally not sufficient? Yeah, I don’t agree that it’s not enough for a search warrant > [@Shagnasty](#): > > I wouldn’t recommend it but you could get loaded up on heroin/LSD/Ecstasy or anything else, march right down to the police station and confess, and there is nothing they could do except send you to the hospital… I think they absolutely have probable cause to now go get a warrant to search your house/car for evidence of drug paraphernalia. They certainly have reasonable suspicion to pat you down for evidence of contraband on your person. You should expect to be detained while they investigate further. > [@Bricker](#): > > If I swallow a condom filled with heroin, and then walk into a police station and announce that I have just swallowed a condom full of heroin, does that “count?” Yeah, people get arrested for having balloons of drugs in their stomach even when they don’t confess to it. But, I have seen cases where the amount of drugs is so small that the testing of it dissipates it, so they end up dropping the charges. You do need evidence of the drugs in court, beyond just the confession. Otherwise, how do we know that the guy swallowed heroin? > [@UltraVires](#): > > Possession of heroin. He admitted to possessing it just prior to injecting it into his arm. Assuming we’re at trial, he is no longer admitting to it. So, before he was just joking. Or it was injected into him by somebody else (perhaps unwittingly; after all, why else did he just walk into a police station and tell them?!). You don’t have evidence of possession beyond a reasonable doubt, do you? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/27 "2018-05-25T21:34:16Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If I swallow a condom filled with heroin, and then walk into a police station and announce that I have just swallowed a condom full of heroin, does that “count?” Well, do the cops collect any actual evidence other than your confession? Like, what if you don’t swallow a condom full of heroin, and then you walk into the police station and announce that you’ve swallowed a condom full of heroin? Do the cops just take your confession, and hand it over to the prosecutor for a slam-dunk open and shut case? Or do they try to figure out if there’s any other evidence that a crime took place, other than your say-so? As you are no doubt aware, people will sometimes contact the cops and confess to crimes they didn’t commit, for various reasons that seem good to them. The justice system doesn’t have to take confessions to crimes at face value. ---
**Author:** ![piston\_broke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/278dde/32.png) [@piston\_broke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/piston_broke)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/28 "2018-05-25T22:35:31Z")
There’s a quiz show over here, the UK, called Eggheads, in which teams take on a panel of quiz experts. Not exactly noteworthy on its own but one of the resident experts, CJ de Mooi, was arrested after putting a bit too much information in his autobiography - to wit, he killed a tramp in Amsterdam. From Wiki - On 21 September 2016, de Mooi was arrested at Heathrow Airport in connection with claims, which he had reportedly made in his autobiography, that in 1988 he had punched a drug-addicted mugger and thrown him into a canal in Amsterdam. De Mooi was detained under a European Arrest Warrant issued in the Netherlands. A judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court declined the extradition request on technical grounds, on 24 October 2016, saying that no UK arrest warrant had been issued. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/29 "2018-05-25T22:48:59Z")
There is of course [Marquis de Sade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Sade#Scandals_and_imprisonment), who was imprisoned for writing Justine and Juliette. But he was never brought to trial (he was ultimately committed to a mental institution where he died so you can’t say whether he was actually imprisoned for publishing an obscene novel, rather than the sex crimes in the book (which were fictional accounts written from a female protagonists point of view, but clearly contain auto-biographical elements) ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/30 "2018-05-30T16:42:19Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > How would this admission be entered into the court record as evidence? Serious question, would the prosecution even be allowed to enter a book as evidence? Who would testify as to the validity and meaning of the evidence? Call the officer who heard the confession to the stand and say that at 8pm on October 4, 2018, the Defendant, John Smith, seated right there, walked up and said that he had injected heroin into his arm fifteen minutes prior. If the defense is “Yes, that is true, but you have no physical drugs as proof so piss off” then I as a juror am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that at around 7:45pm on that date, the Defendant did indeed possess heroin. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/31 "2018-05-30T16:48:16Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Call the officer who heard the confession to the stand and say that at 8pm on October 4, 2018, the Defendant, John Smith, seated right there, walked up and said that he had injected heroin into his arm fifteen minutes prior. Objection, hearsay, your honor. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/32 "2018-05-30T16:58:48Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Prosecution also has to be based on specific events at specific times. You can’t be arrested for an illegal drug “sometime” “someplace”. The when and where are crucial to a judge. Additionally, the prosecution has to have proof of the drug in a person’s possession, witnesses, or other evidence to tie a specific crime down. “I stole a car once” is not proof of a crime. The police have to connect that to stealing a 1938 Hupmobile parked on the corner of Kesey and Sunshine at 3:48 am on Tuesday, August 16, in Hooverville, AL for a conviction to be upheld. Hard to imagine that’s true to nearly the extent you describe. For example, ISTM that many people have been convicted of murder without the prosecution alleging knowledge of exactly when or where the murder was committed. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/33 "2018-05-30T17:14:30Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Objection, hearsay, your honor. Objection overruled. Statement by a party. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/34 "2018-05-30T17:33:06Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Objection overruled. Statement by a party. Sit down counselor. Another outburst like that and you’ll be placed in restraints! ---
**Author:** ![40below](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/51bf81/32.png) [@40below](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/40below)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750/35 "2018-05-30T23:09:14Z")
If you drove to the police station before confessing to using drugs there, you could easily be charged with driving while impaired by alcohol or drug, or whatever the local statute is. Your confession + evidence from blood or fail a screening by a cop qualified as drug recognition expert would be enough. At the very least,they’d lock you up until sober just like any other drunk driving arrest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prosecution-based-on-auto-biographical-books/814750.md?page=1)