Legal Definition and Related Resources of Confession

In criminal law. The voluntary declaration, made by a person who has committed a crime or misdemeanor, to another, of the agency or participation which he had in the same. An admission or acknowledgment by a prisoner, when arraigned for an offense, that he committed the crime with which he is charged. A confession is an admission of the criminal act, and is to be distinguished from “admissions” or “declarations” by the defendant of facts from which guilt may be inferred. 53 Iowa, 69; 17 111. 427. Judicial confessions are those made before a magistrate or in court in the due course of legal proceedings. Extrajudicial confessions are those made by the party elsewhere than before a magistrate or in open court. 1 Greenl. Ev. § 216. The term “confession” is limited to the criminal act, and does not include statements, declarations, or admissions of facts incriminating in their nature or tending to prove guilt. 208 111. 607.

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This definition of Confession is based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary . This entry needs to be proofread.

Vocabularies (Semantic Web Information)

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noun

• acknowledgment
• acknowledgment of guilt
• acquiescence
• admission
• admission of fault
• admission of guilt
• assertion
• avowal of guilt
• confirmation
• declaration
• disclosure
• disclosure of fault
• divulgement
• divulgence
• exclamation
• exomologesis
• incriminating statement
• inculpatory statement
• pronouncement
• purgation
• revealment
• selfaccusation
• selfcondemnation
• statement
• utterance
• Associated Concepts: confessedjudgment
• confession and avoidance
• confession of error
• extrajudicial confessions
• implied confession
• involuntary confession
• judgment by confession
• judicial confession
• voluntary confession
• written confession foreign phrases: Con/essus in judiciopro judicato habetur
• et quodammodo sua sententia damnatur
• A person confessing his guilt in court is deemed to have been found guilty
• and is
• in a manner
• condemned by his own sentence
• Cum confitente sponte mitius est agendum
• One making a voluntary confession is to be dealt with more leniently

Confession in the law of the United States

Confession: Related U.S. Resources

• Confession in the American Law Encyclopedia
• Criminal Judicial Process Keywords in the U.S. Legal Corpus
• Criminal Process Topics in the United States Legal Dictionary

See Also

Assistance of Counsel (in the U.S. Legal Encyclopedia) Self-Incrimination (in the U.S. Legal Encyclopedia).

Confession in Law Enforcement

Main Entry: Law Enforcement in the Legal Dictionary. This section provides, in the context of Law Enforcement, a partial definition of confession.

Grammar

This term is a noun.

Etimology of Confession

(You may find confession at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).

late 14c., “action of confessing,” originally in religion, from Old French confession (10c.), from Latin confessionem (nominative confessio) “confession, acknowledgement,” noun of action from past participle stem of confiteri (see confess). In law, from 1570s. Meaning “that which is confessed” is mid-15c. An Old English word for it was andettung, also scriftspræc.

Resources

See Also

• Law Enforcement Officer
• Policeman
• Law Enforcement Agency

Further Reading

• confession in A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (Oxford University Press)
• confession in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement
• A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis

English Legal System: Confession And Avoidance

In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Confession And Avoidance : A pleading in the *defence that, while admitting or assuming the truth of the material facts alleged in the particulars of claim (the confession), seeks to avoid or destroy the legal consequences of those facts by alleging further facts constituting some defence to the claim (the avoidance). An example is a plea of self-defence to an action for assault.

English Legal System: Confession

In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Confession :

An *admission, in whole or in part, made by an accused person of his guilt. At common law, confessions were admissible if made voluntarily, i.e. not obtained as a result of some threat or inducement held out by a person in authority (such as a police officer). They are now governed by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which requires the prosecution
, if called upon to do SO, to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the confession was not obtained by oppression of the person who made it or as a result of anything that was likely to render the confession unreliable. A confession may also be ruled to be inadmissible if the civil rights of the accused have been breached, for example if he has been denied access to legal advice.

Confession (Criminal Judicial Process)

Confession

Confession

Confession