Case & Statute Comments - Criminal Law: A New Regime of Electronic Recording of Police Interrogations (Commonwealth v. DiGiambattista, 442 Mass. 423 (2004))

Abstract

This case comment analyzes the rule and significance of Commonwealth v. DiGiambattista, 442 Mass. 423 (2004), in which the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held as a matter of its supervisory authority that whenever a criminal defendant is alleged to have made a statement produced by custodial interrogation or interrogation in a detention facility, if the statement was not electronically recorded the defendant is then entitled to a strongly worded jury instruction that casts significant doubt on the statement's reliability. The ramifications of this decision, which reaches misdemeanors as well as felonies, without regard to whether voluntariness of the statement is at issue or to the reason for the failure to record, will likely be to dramatically increase recording by law enforcement.

Keywords: Interrogation, Confession, Electronic Recording, Custodial, Reliability, Voluntariness