Electronic Recording of Custodial Interrogations
Summary of HB 223/SB 15
By Edwin Colfax
The bill mandates that any statement made as a result of a custodial interrogation in a police station or other place of detention concerning a homicide investigation shall be presumed inadmissible in court unless it is electronically recorded. The bill includes a waiver of the "eavesdropping laws," to allow interrogations to be recorded without the suspect's knowledge or permission when the subject is aware that the interviewer is an officer. It permits videotape or audio recording, a compromise with some members of law enforcement concerned about cost issues. Exceptions have been written into the law to address circumstances in which taping is not practicable, spontaneous statements, statements when interrogators are unaware that a homicide has occurred, and interrogations in other states. The presumption against admissibility of an unrecorded statement can be overcome "by a preponderance of the evidence that the statement was voluntary based on the totality of the circumstances." The taping requirement becomes effective in two years, although a separately approved bill, SB 472, creates a pilot project to allow some jurisdictions to begin taping right away. The bill also covers interrogations of minor suspects.
