The Future of Confession

Abstract

What are the current status and future prospects of confession, in the law and in cultural practices? Recent Supreme Court decisions in Missouri v. Seibert and United States v. Patane raise new questions about Miranda doctrine that one thought had been laid to rest in Dickerson v. United States, in 2000. Seibert revives Oregon v. Elstad, and its worries about endowing psychological issues with constitutional significance—and this may be something of a key to the Court's uncertainties as to what kind of reading it wants to give to Miranda. In general, the place of confession in the law remains troubled and uncertain, all the more so in that the law, like the culture at large, seems addicted to confessions.