You Have the Right to Remain Innocent

by James J. Duane

What if you give information to a police officer or any other individual that you think might support your claim of innocence? Will that person be allowed to share that information with the judge or the jury at your trial? The answer will surprise you: no, almost certainly not—not unless it hurts your case. Once the case gets to trial, as you know from television, the police and other witnesses are not allowed to share all the information in their possession—not even if they wanted to do so—because they are subject to a collection of rules known as the law of evidence. Those rules define certain kinds of information that are inadmissible, and which therefore cannot be revealed to the judge or the jurors who are deciding the case. And one of the most famous of those rules is the law of hearsay, which generally prevents the police from telling the judge about information that they have heard from other witnesses—including of course the defendant.

Basically, the police can only used testimony from you that "can be used against you." They can't use anything you say that can help your case.