Confession and interrogation procedures are protected by the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. The confession is recognized as a significant evidence having impact upon the prosecution. Taking into account the importance of preventing the cases of illegally obtained confessions and ensuring the proper interrogation procedures, the three amendments which are applicable to the confession context are aimed at protecting the suspects’ rights.
The Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments are aimed at excluding compulsion from the interrogation process. The central element of the Fifth Amendment is the self-incrimination clause which states that nobody “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself” (Worall, 2010, p. 225). A defendant is protected from self-incrimination and cannot be compelled to testify, however, he/she can be compelled to answer the questions after he/she takes a stand.
The Sixth Amendment restricts the procedures which the police can use during the interrogation for obtaining confession. The incriminating responses cannot be deliberately elicited from a person. The Fourteenth Amendment contains a due process clause under which the convictions can be found invalid in case if offensive interrogation methods were used.
Regoli and Hewitt (2010) noted that “it was not until the early decades of the twentieth century that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment… began to specifically incorporate the Bill of Rights” (p. 46). The three amendments under consideration which are applicable to the interrogation procedures emphasize various aspects of the confession process and are important for protecting the suspects’ rights and excluding compulsion from interrogation process.
The Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments point at the importance of voluntariness of the confession and indicate the due processes which can be used by the police during the interrogation.