LAW 500 - Police Interrogation

Credits: 2

This course will explore the numerous difficult legal issues involved with the police interrogation of suspects. The focus here will be on the way the constitutional mandate [especially as seen in the seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miranda v. Arizona] works in actual practice. We will consider the warnings process, questions involving citizens in general and certain groups in particular [e.g., minors, those with intellectual disabilities, racial minorities, inmates]. We will also spend time looking at how our culture views police interrogation, with an emphasis on the Hollywood “application” of our legal principles. Class will meet in one two-hour session each week. The assigned text will be a compilation of materials prepared by the professor to be made available at the start of the term. The grade for this class will be determined as follows: 25% for class participation and 75% for a paper due the last day of class. There will be no final exam. The professor will assist each student in selecting a paper topic and in shaping it. There will not be blind grading for this course. Those students who were enrolled in the spring, 2019 seminar on interrogation are not eligible to enroll in this class.