Shodan, you seem to be under the impression that if you just insist that you didn’t do it, the police will turn their attention elsewhere.
However, people are convicted all the time who insisted they didn’t do the crime they were convicted of, and who were factually innocent, as evidenced by the numerous convictions overturned by DNA evidence in recent years.
If you (in this hypothetical situation) found yourself in a courtroom in front of a jury, the prosecutor would have a field day highlighting all of the numerous inconsistencies in your numerous statements to the police, all of which would be presented as evidence of your guilt.
Personally, I think that if I were ever questioned by the police, I would give a single initial statement. If they tried to question me further (including asking about unrelated events), I would tell them that I wanted a lawyer present for any additional questioning.
Something I’ve asked several times before, and I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten a clear answer:
If I already know that I have the right to remain silent when the cops come asking questions, why do I need to have a lawyer? My inclination would be to give a single initial statement ( maybe ) and then STFU.
Where does this fail?
My guess is that the cops might then use all kinds of high-pressure and coercive tactics to drag a confession out of me (like the proverbial 72-hour interrogation where a team of cops tag-teams against me) with no sleep, no water, no food, and no bathroom breaks. It seems that only the physical presence of a lawyer can assure that they won’t do this.
Is that right? Is that what happens to people who think they can just remain silent without the need for a lawyer? (And yes, I know that to exercise one’s right to remain silent, it is sometimes held that you must actually speak up and say so.)
The Ramseys were never arrested for the crime. They hired their lawyers.
Other people, if they want lawyers, need to pay for them, or insist that the police arrest them. As long as they remain “persons of interest,” but are not arrested, they are not entitled to public assistance lawyers.
The right to remain silent is tricky too. It is an absolute right of someone who has been arrested. If you have not been arrested, you don’t have the *constitutional *right to remain silent, although you certainly have the prerogative, but you are likely to get threatened with things like being arrested for obstruction.
No, not at all. I am going to be a suspect whether I talk or not. The police are going to be paying attention to me. That’s understandable. What I am going to do (if I am innocent) is give them something to check, in the form of answering any questions they have. They will check my answers out, while simultaneously checking whatever other evidence there is against anybody else. I don’t think I will be any less subject to their attention whether I talk or not.
And the parts about discrepancies don’t bother me. Yes I am going to give some answers that are off or unverifiable or just plain wrong. That happens for everyone. The police aren’t stupid - they know it too. If I give my story, and the police point out some discrepancies, and I change the story - that’s what looks suspicious.
So I said I arrived at the gym at 5:30 and it was actually 5:47. I still didn’t kill my daughter. I gave my story to the best of my recollection. What else is wrong about my story? I don’t know - I am giving the best of my recollection. Check out the details and you will see.
I have known cops, and the idea that, if they can’t find a suspect, they will just try to hang it on whoever is convenient is not in accord with my experience of the kind of folks they are. Sure, wrong convictions happen sometimes. Find me a significant number of people who were wrongly convicted on no other evidence than discrepancies in their account of events, who had no criminal background, and I will worry about being convicted when I am innocent.
Maybe the Ramseys got away with it because they lawyered up at once. But maybe they were involved in the murder somehow. I am assuming that I wasn’t involved, and the only thing I would care about it finding who did it.
Go ahead and investigate me. But investigate everyone. Find who did it. I don’t care about anything else.
When will his/her case get the attention it deserves?