Is it really “anything” and how will it be used? Never thought about it, but it sounds kind of strange.
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Let’s say you murder someone. The police suspect you did it, so they interview you. One thing they ask is where you were when the murder happened. Imagine you lie and say you were at the bowling alley.
Fast forward to your trial. The prosecution will bring up the police officer who will testify that you said you were at the bowling alley. Then they show security camera footage from the night in question which proves you were never at the bowling alley! The jury will realize you lied, and so you probably are the murderer.
The police are cautioning you that, as they are now arresting and/or questioning you in connection with some sort of investigation, if you make a statement that incriminates you in that investigation, that statement can be used as evidence in court. They are not required to tell you what evidence might be incriminating (and they may not even know themselves yet), so the warning is a general one. It is a reminder that you have the right to remain silent and not to assist the government in making its criminal case against you.
Not “will be used”, should state “can be used”. On tv and moves a lot of times they say “can and will be used”. That’s dumb. If I say “I am an elephant” there’s no guarantee that WILL BE used against me in court, although it can be.
Fictional American cops always say “anything you say can and will be used against you”, which drives me nuts because it’s not true. The real warning is just with “can”, like the British one.
Edit to add: I thnk the exact wording varies by area, but I can’t imagine any version says “can and will”, given that it’s not true. e.g. this parge document doesn’t contain the phrase “can and will” https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1209&context=smulr
To put it simply, if you say anything to incriminate yourself or if you flat out confess to the crime, they will use that as evidence to prosecute you in court.
It’s to warn you that even a tiny comment that is even slightly incriminating that you say to the police can be used as evidence in the courtroom, thus reminding you that it is very much in your interest to keep your mouth shut until you secure legal counsel.
Isn’t “will” here meant as “might be, and if possible, it surely is going to” ?
Because I cannot think how they gonna use against me that I like Taylor Swift… on the other hand if I say I was robbing a store yesterday the police must say they heard it from me?
This was actually illustrated in the movie “My Cousin Vinny.” A young man, William Gambini and his friend were arrested for supposedly shooting a convenience store clerk. (
He was innocent but had strong evidence against him ) . The police interrogate him, and he didn’t know he was accused of murder, so he was just telling his side of the story, not knowing just yet how serious the issue was.
The policeman asked “So when did you shoot the clerk?” And Gambini replied “I shot the clerk?” In sort of a questioning tone, as if to just be asking the question of “Are you staying I shot the clerk?”
In court, the policeman was put on the witness stand and told the court “He then answered ‘I shot the clerk’ ” as if it was a confession saying “Yeah I shot the clerk”
The policeman didn’t lie. Gambini did say those words. However, the jury is just hearing the words repeated back, and not the context. The jury thought it was simply a confession and didn’t hear the questioning tone.
It would have been better if he just kept his mouth shut so this wouldn’t be an issue.
Once sworn in you are ordered to answer questions about the case and because you can remain silent or abstain from self incrimination everything you say can be used for or against you as evidential statement and testimony.
If you want a more technical answer, this is called a party admission. If you say something to a policer officer when interviewed, that is technically hearsay. If the officer repeats that in court, they are repeating an out of court statement for the truth of matter asserted. That should not be allowed. However, party admission is an exception to hearsay. If any member of the accused party makes any statement of any kind that is against the interests of that party, that is a party admission and is admissible. As the famous quote goes, “Anything the other side ever said or did will be admissible so long as it has something to do with the case.”
It’s an odd hearsay exception. Unlike other exceptions which deal more with availability and reliability of a declarant, this exception is an estoppel, meaning you are bound by what you say. However, this exception only works one way. A statement made in the party’s own interest is not a party admission. This means that if you say something bad about yourself to an officer, they can use it trial against you, but if you say something good, you cannot use it to support you (unless another hearsay exception applies).
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