Bill Text: NJ A4729 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes procedure to determine reliability and admissibility of defendant's statements made during law enforcement interrogation.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-09-12 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee [A4729 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A4729-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman BENJIE E. WIMBERLY
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Establishes procedure to determine reliability and admissibility of defendant's statements made during law enforcement interrogation.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning admissibility of unreliable statements in certain criminal and juvenile cases, and supplementing Title 2A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. As used in this section:
"Custodial interrogation" means any interrogation during which a reasonable person in the defendant's position would consider himself or herself to be in custody, whether or not the defendant is physically restrained; and during which a question is asked that is reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. Custodial interrogation shall include an interrogation of a juvenile by a law enforcement officer conducted in a building on the premises of a school where the juvenile is enrolled as a student. If the defendant under interrogation is a juvenile or a person with an intellectual or developmental disability, there shall be a rebuttable presumption of custodial interrogation if the interrogation is conducted without the presence of the defendant's parent or legal guardian.
"Place of detention" means a building or a police station or barracks that is a place of operation for the State Police, a municipal or county police department, county sheriff's department, county prosecutor, or other law enforcement agency, at which persons are or may be held in detention in connection with criminal or juvenile delinquency charges against those persons. Place of detention shall include a State or county correctional facility, private correctional facility, juvenile detention facility, State juvenile facility, State or county workhouse, the interior of a police or sheriff's vehicle, secure holding area for defendants in criminal or juvenile delinquency cases attached to a courthouse, any facility used for the holding of persons who are or may be subject to deportation from the United States, or a building on the premises of a school where a juvenile under interrogation is enrolled as a student.
"Under medical detention" means the receiving of medical treatment by a patient while under the supervision, custody, or control of a law enforcement officer, under circumstances where the patient is or may be held in detention in connection with criminal or juvenile delinquency charges, whether or not the patient is physically restrained.
b. Unreliable statements, as determined by the court pursuant to the provisions of this section, made to law enforcement during a custodial interrogation conducted at a police station or other place of detention, or while under medical detention, by a defendant shall be inadmissible at trial in any criminal court proceeding or juvenile delinquency proceeding for the prosecution of murder, kidnapping, aggravated manslaughter, manslaughter, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact, second degree aggravated assault, aggravated arson, burglary, violations of Chapter 35 of Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes that constitute first or second degree crimes, any crime involving the possession or use of a firearm, or conspiracies or attempts to commit such crimes.
c. In any criminal or juvenile delinquency prosecution for the crimes enumerated in subsection b. of this section, the prosecution shall timely disclose to the defendant prior to any relevant evidentiary hearing or trial its intent to introduce a statement made during a custodial interrogation conducted at a police station, place of detention, or while under medical detention. At that time, the prosecution shall provide to the defendant any electronic recordings of the statement and any documents relating to the circumstances under which the statement was obtained and any other evidence the State intends to rely upon to determine the statement's reliability. If the statement was translated from a language other than English, the prosecution shall also provide any evidence the State intends to rely upon to determine the accuracy of the translation.
d. Before trial, a defendant may move to exclude any statement made during a custodial interrogation conducted at a police station, place of detention, or while under medical detention alleged by the defendant to be unreliable. The defendant shall specifically identify the statement or portions thereof alleged to be unreliable.
e. At the evidentiary hearing on the defendant's motion pursuant to subsection d. of this section, it shall be the burden of the prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the statement is reliable. The defendant may choose to testify at such a hearing without waiving any trial rights against self-incrimination, but the defendant is not required to testify.
f. When deciding a statement's reliability, the court shall consider:
(1) whether the details in the statement fit with the evidence known before the interrogation, especially details that describe unusual or not easily deduced facts of the crime that had not been made public;
(2) whether the statement provides any new details or any new evidence not known before the interrogation that can be independently corroborated after the interrogation;
(3) whether facts of the crime were disclosed to the defendant rather than originated with the defendant;
(4) whether the defendant recanted the defendant's statement at any time and the circumstances of that recantation;
(5) whether the statement was electronically recorded;
(6) the reasonableness of the law enforcement tactics used in eliciting the statement, especially the use of deception, fabrication, false promise, or exaggeration of material facts; and
(7) any other information relevant to the reliability of the statement.
g. The provisions of this section shall be in addition to, and not in lieu of, any applicable rule under the New Jersey Rules of Court or Rules of Evidence.
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the third month next following enactment, except that the Attorney General and the Administrative Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts may take such anticipatory action as may be necessary for the timely implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes a procedure for defendants in certain criminal and juvenile delinquency cases to challenge the admissibility of statements made during a law enforcement interrogation on the basis that the statements are unreliable as evidence.
Under the bill, a defendant's statement to law enforcement made during a custodial interrogation conducted at a police station or other place of detention, or while under medical detention, which has been deemed by the court to be unreliable, is inadmissible at trial in criminal or juvenile prosecutions for murder, kidnapping, aggravated manslaughter, manslaughter, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact, second degree aggravated assault, aggravated arson, burglary, violations of Chapter 35 of Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes (controlled substances) that constitute first or second degree crimes, any crime involving the possession or use of a firearm, or conspiracies or attempts to commit such crime.
The bill requires that if the prosecutor intends to introduce a statement made during a custodial interrogation conducted at a police station, a place of detention, or while under medical detention, the prosecutor must provide to the defendant any electronic recordings of the statement and any documents relating to the circumstances under which the statement was obtained and any other evidence the State intends to rely upon to determine the statement's reliability. If the statement was translated from a language other than English, the prosecutor must also provide any evidence the State intends to rely upon to determine the accuracy of the translation. The bill allows a defendant to make a motion prior to trial to exclude a statement alleged to be unreliable. The bill requires the prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the statement is reliable.
When deciding a statement's reliability, the court is required to consider: (1) whether the details in the statement fit with the evidence known before the interrogation, especially details that describe unusual or not easily guessed facts of the crime that had not been made public; (2) whether the statement provides any new details or any new evidence not known before the interrogation that can be independently corroborated after the interrogation; (3) whether facts of the crime were disclosed to the defendant rather than originated with the defendant; (4) whether the defendant recanted the defendant's statement at any time and the circumstances of that recantation; (5) whether the statement was electronically recorded; (6) the reasonableness of the law enforcement tactics used in eliciting the statement, especially the use of deception, fabrication, false promise, or exaggeration of material facts; and (7) any other information relevant to the reliability of the statement.
