BILL WOULD END ‘DECEPTION’ TO OBTAIN JUVENILE SUSPECT CONFESSIONS
Sen. Linda Stewart

A Central Florida lawmaker is refiling a measure that would make a juvenile suspect’s confession inadmissible if police use “deception” to obtain it.

Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, filed SB 890 on February 16. The measure has yet to receive committee references and there is no House companion.

The bill would apply to any suspect 18 or younger who is subject to a “custodial interrogation,” and any confession obtained through the knowing use of “deception.”

The measure defines “deception” as the use of “false facts about evidence” or “unauthorized statements regarding leniency.”

However, the presumption of inadmissibility could be overcome if a prosecutor could show, “by a preponderance of evidence, that the confession was voluntarily given based on the totality of circumstances.”

A similar measure last year, SB 668 by Sen. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, cleared two committees unanimously before stalling in Senate Rules in the final days of the legislative session.