State ex rel. A.W.

More than a decade ago, this Court established the framework for our trial courts to use when deciding whether a confession given by a juvenile in a custodial setting was voluntary and therefore admissible in a delinquency proceeding. See State v. Presha, 163 N.J. 304, 312-17, 748 A.2d 1108 (2000). Among the wide variety of factors that bear on an evaluation of voluntariness, we considered the role played by a juvenile’s parent during questioning and we addressed the implications of the parent’s absence from an interrogation. Id. at 314-17, 748 A.2d 1108. In establishing the analytical…