Why shouldn’t you talk to police without a lawyer?
A lot of people think, “If I didn’t do anything wrong, I should just explain what happened.”
Unfortunately, it is rarely that simple.
One reason is that
anything you say to police can potentially become evidence in your criminal case.
To understand why that matters, it helps to understand the rule against
hearsay.
Hearsay is generally an out-of-court statement that someone is trying to use in court to prove that what was said is actually true. There are many exceptions to the hearsay rule, but generally, a person cannot simply repeat an out-of-court statement in court to prove the truth of that statement.
For example, imagine you tell police, “I was at my friend's house when the incident happened.”
If the prosecutor wants to use that statement against you, the rules of evidence generally allow a defendant's own statement to be admitted against that defendant as a
statement of a party opponent.
But the rules can work differently when the defense wants to use the defendant's own statement.
Your attorney generally cannot simply say, “My client told police that he was at his friend's house, so that proves he was at his friend's house.” That is an out-of-court statement being offered to prove that what the statement says is true, which raises a hearsay problem unless another rule or exception applies.
That creates an important practical difference:
the State may be able to use what you told police against you, while your attorney may not be able to use your own prior statement simply to prove your version of events.
There are other risks, too. When you talk to police, you may:
- Give investigators information they did not previously have;
- Make an inaccurate statement because you are nervous or do not remember something perfectly;
- Say something that can later be characterized as inconsistent with other evidence;
- Guess or speculate when you do not actually know the answer; or
- Provide information that helps the State build its case.
This does not mean you should lie to police. It means you should understand that you have the right to remain silent and, when applicable, the right to have an attorney present during questioning.
If police want to question you about a potential crime, you do not have to try to explain your way out of it.
Ask for a lawyer before answering questions.
At Freeman & Johnson Law Office, we help clients understand their rights and protect them throughout the criminal process.
