You Have the Right to Remain Innocent Kindle Edition

More pamphlet than book, and with a single message: don’t talk to police.Here’s the summary:By law, a prosecutor can see to it that nothing you tell the police is used in court to help you. That’s a law. Save the good stuff for your lawyer and your day in court!Conversely, everything you tell the police can be used in court to hurt your case:• You may inadvertently tell them something inaccurate; potentially, that’s perjury.• You could waste a perfectly good alibi by getting a detail wrong.• You may tell them something absolutely correct that some expert falsely disputes and then you’ve lied, again, and you’ve provided them with an “aha” moment for the jury.• You may tell them something that to you seems irrelevant, but to them helps bolster or build a case against you out of nothing.• You may even bend under their pressure and confess to something you did not do!The cops are allowed to lie to extract a confession: they can lie about whether you’re a suspect or not, they can lie about what you’re suspected of, they can lie about details of the case, they are in all probability lying about any lenience they may be offering you, they are trained to legally set you up to look like you possess information that you only could have gotten if you were at the scene of the crime. They are very unlikely to transcribe or record your conversation accurately and, again, any errors will play against you.The police can legally feed back everything you discussed with them to whoever is accusing you and help them build their case!None of this is because the police are bad; it’s because they are people. As people they are both fallible and liable to look for every possible angle that can support an initial wrong guess. Some may even be more than fallible and venal and not want to admit they were wrong to suspect you.Keeping quiet can help you stay away from all this trouble.Sadly, even this advice is no longer perfect, because the Supreme Court has ruled that an innocent person would have no reason to say something as straightforward as “I would not like to speak with you because the constitution affords me the right to avoid self-incrimination.” These days, you have to invoke a different constitutional right and firmly ask for a lawyer!So that’s what the book says. I have plenty to add, but will keep it brief:I’ll be fifty in June, so now I have friends who have gone to jail. It is invariably for a statement they have naively given, which the cop afterwards baptized “a confession.” But don’t take it from me, read Michael Lewis’ book about Sergey Aleynikov; or compare and contrast what happened to the Barclays guys (who asked for a lawyer) and the Citibank guy, who spent 86 hours talking to the cops first. The way a dear friend tells it who got 13 years for a crime he had nothing to do with, “jail is for the stupid.” (The Greek word he used has three a’s in it.)In short, the justice system is a system that closes cases, not a system that seeks justice. The antechamber of this Kafkaesque hell is the police station. If you have not managed to avoid the visit to the antechamber, keep stumm until you’ve hired the best legal help you can. In doing so, you’re hiring part of the system, you’re paying cash into the system, you’re getting the system on side. And you’re involving part of the system that’s a pay grade (or ten) above the cop who’s looking to feed you with your confession and write it up for you. That’s your best bet.

Professor Duane was one of my law professors, and as a criminal defense attorney, I wish every American would read this book. Prof. Duane mixes his brilliant legal scholarship with his trademark humor in this brief overview of what to do when a police officer asks cheerfully, "You don't mind answering a few questions, do you?"The book shows how even the innocent - especially the innocent - should decline to talk to the police, and invoke their rights immediately. The book is an easy enough read that even someone with no legal background will understand it, but also offers insight for practicing attorneys.

First, the sensible truth of the matter. This was heartbreaking to read. Not for the many references to the cases, but for the careful citations that bear testament to this as a work of non-fiction. In my home of Honolulu, we have relatively good relations with our local law enforcement. I suppose that I'd taken for granted that because I didn't hear the details of injustices in my area that they were not commonplace.What James Duane lays out is a skillful and lively, yet sober glance at the world of prosecutorial discretion. I wasn't familiar with the concept very much before now. Insofar as I understand the basic premise, there are too many laws. Far more than any one practitioner of law can be expected to know, much less a layman like myself. Because of this, it leaves a discretion — a flexibility I can't say I feel is wholly compatible with our national notions of freedom — for law enforcement and prosecutors to be able to _find_ some kind of wrongdoing that can be prosecuted.I feel as though I've learned something valuable. The book couldn't have been shorter, because the gravitas would not have been there. Innocent people have gone to jail because they failed to make use of their protections against self-incrimination and before reading this I may have shared a bias against the invocation of the Fifth Amendment. Even if the instance is very rare, this is knowledge worth spreading more widely because of the dire consequences for ignorance.

A total eye-opener! I have never had any major interaction with police but as most of us, I would have believed that an honest explanation by an innocent person would suffice. Not true in many cases!I would highly recommend the book to anyone specially those that are minorities or who have teenage children. He opens the book with a statement commonly made by children of law enforcement officers, "Years ago, my parents explained to me that if I were ever approached by a law enforcement officer, I was to call them immediately, and they made sure that I would never agree to talk to police."Duane does not denigrate the police but he does make it clear that their job is to arrest any person who might be guilty.Be prepared, read the book and pass it on to your children or talk to them about possible encounters with police!

Many years ago I was interviewed in connection with a murder allegedly committed by a man my neighbor was weeing. I had no clue how dangerous that could have been for ME. This is a very important issue and I'm glad I bought this book. A quick read, lots of examples and justifications for the author's advice. A bit repetitious is my only complaint. "I want a lawyer." That simple, read the book to find out when and why those 4 words could save you a world of grief.

Wow. I knew these tactics and techniques were used by law enforcement, I never knew how much simple statements could be woven into a guilty sentence for the most innocent. James Duane gives examples, case studies with excellent reference section that's also worth reading. I'd recommend this book to everyone but most especially to young people,teens, who may not be aware of their rights and the power of words.

I have watched this guys lecture where he said "Don't talk to the police" giving much the same detail as was in this book.He then handed over to a policeman who basically said "every word that man said is true" and followed up with the ' why not' and how they had been trained to extract details and confessions.Thankfully I don't live in America but the lessons have been fully taken on-board.However, finding a copper here is a miracle so the chances of getting nicked for a slip of the tongue is minimal.As stated in other comments, the YouTube video is as much as you really need but the book was fast reading and the authors delivery came through in the words.The book doesn't convey the authors passion as well as the video....TheAch, go watch the video instead. I'd post the URl but Amazon blocks the review if I did that. Yay Amazon.

As a Brit who is only curious I love it as it's so short and powerful. The author questions your common sense before your faith in the American system. It's an interesting way to explore lots of ideas that feed into justice; ethics, the limits of the police, how evidence should be handled, the psychology of memory applied to witnesses... Reading this and watching James Duane on Youtube and all the responses to his book and videos has been really fascinating. The book does not disappoint.

Well written, scary, and VITAL information for every single person, especially for those people who naively think they could never be in trouble with the police. Written by an American but everything in it applies to the UK. You need this information if you are innocent and are ever in the wrong place at the wrong time when a crime is committed. The problem is, you MUST HAVE this knowledge BEFORE police ever talk to you. GET THE BOOK!

The system is well and truly corrupt and broken as the key issues in this short and easy to digest book demonstrate. Read this book and you will never want to talk to a police officer or government agent again. It is short enough to read in one sitting yet packed full of key points and punctuated with illustrations from real events. A tragic but worthy read.

This should be taught in schools from as early an age as people in legal authority teach their own children the same lessons. From an early age we are taught that if you are innocent you have nothing to hide: a delusion that might perhaps be "if you are innocent, you have nothing to prove". I have children, and I consider it a primary responsibility to pass on the information in this book.