A lot of Georgia citizens do not know the following little piece of information. Let’s say the cops are investigating a crime. And, let’s say that they focus on you as a suspect. If they call you to the police department for an interview….DON’T DO IT! Here is why. What the cops in Georgia are allowed to do is to call you down to the police station for an interview if you are suspected of committing a crime. Even if the cop believes you committed the crime and even if the cop intends to arrest you soon, if you voluntarily go to the police station and allow yourself to be interviewed, so long as you are not placed under formal arrest, then anything you say during that interview can be used against you in a court of law, even without Miranda warnings having been given to you.
That is the trick that is often used these days by cops when they are investigating crime. To prevent you from “lawyering up”, the cop will pretend that he or she just wants to talk to you to further the investigation. The interview may or may not be recorded and then the cop will let you leave. However, just a day or so down the road, they’ll arrest you on an arrest warrant. And, guess what they have now to prosecute you with? Your own damn statement, often made without Miranda warnings.
A real problem with such law enforcement trickery is that the cop, during that interview might use a trick question or two. A trick question is like, “Do you still beat your wife?”
Think about that question. Can you answer it without incriminating yourself? The answer is absolutely not. If you answer “yes”, then you’ve admitted you still beat your wife. If you answer “no”, then you’ve implicitly stated that you used to beat your wife, which may or may not be true. Either way, you’ve just made a statement that incriminates you, when, in fact, you may have never beat your wife, which would be the truth. But, try explaining the nuances of that sort of verbal trickery to a brainwashed, brain-dead Georgia jury that is inclined to convict a criminal defendant from start to finish of the trial.
Don’t get set up by the cops. Don’t talk to the cops if you are a suspect in a crime. The most powerful word in the English langauge is “no”. Use it! If the cops call you down to the station for an interview, it is time to talk to your attorney before you do anything. In my experience, very few cops are trying to be objective at the point in time when they speak to a suspect during an investigation. By the time they speak to the suspect, they’ve already made up their mind about the suspect’s guilt and they are only seeking information with which to convict the suspect. You are being very foolish if you are a suspect and if you go in to speak to a cop and if you expect that officer to be objective and open-minded as he or she questions you about the crime and listens to your responses.
So, refuse to talk to the cops, but always be respectful when you are doing so. The bottom line though is that you must protect your rights. Don’t let the cops trick you.
Be aware, under Georgia law, it is okay for the cops to trick you into making incriminating statements while they interview you. However, if you lie to the cops, it is a felony. You are not in a good position any time that you are interacting with a law enforcement officer, so make use of a good defense attorney if you find yourself being asked for an interview by a law enforcement officer.