State v. DeLeon

¶ 1 The Fifth Amendment provides that a defendant shall not “be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” U.S. Const, amend. V. Accordingly, voluntary statements made by a criminal defendant can be admitted at trial but compelled statements cannot. In this case, defendants were forced to choose between making incriminating statements and facing physical violence. Those incriminating statements were then used *481against the defendants at trial. Under these circumstances, we do not see how the statements could possibly be considered voluntary and admissible. One should not…