Beavers v. State

BRYNER, Justice, with whom EASTAUGH, Justice, joins,

dissenting.

I dissent from this opinion because it muddles the law of confessions and suppresses a statement that, by our traditional test, is voluntary.

Today’s .opinion announces that “threat-induced” confessions must now be considered “presumptively involuntary absent evidence affirmatively indicating that the suspect’s will was not overcome by the threats.”1 The court takes this rule from article I, section 9, of the Alaska Constitution with scarcely a glance to see whether it finds support in the text, context, or history of this…