Court Allows Wide Review of Criminal Confessions

The Supreme Court today gave federal appeals courts broad power to overrule state judges who decide that confessions in criminal cases were given voluntarily.

By an 8-1 vote, the justices ordered a federal appeals court to conduct additional hearings to determine whether a New Jersey man was coerced into confessing to a 1973 murder.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing for the majority, said a finding by a state court that a confession was voluntary should not be presumed correct.

“The ultimate question whether, under the totality of the circumstances, the challenged confession was obtained in a manner compatible with the requirements of the Constitution is a matter for independent federal determination,” O’Connor said.

The court ordered further hearings in the case of Frank M. Miller, convicted of murdering Deborah Margolin, 17, on Aug. 13, 1973, near her home in East Amwell Township. Her body was found in a creek, her throat and breasts cut.

Miller, who had been convicted previously of carnal abuse, was questioned for about an hour by a state police detective who told the suspect, “I want to help you, because you are . . . in my mind, you are not responsible.”

The detective promised to get Miller “proper help” with a psychiatrist.

Miller gave increasingly damaging statements and passed out after confessing.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the confession was voluntary and said the detective’s “friendly cop” approach did not violate Miller’s rights.