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1966 U. Ill. L.F. 390 (1966)
Detention after Arrest and In-Custody Investigation: Some Exclusionary Principles

handle is hein.journals/unilllr1966 and id is 428 raw text is: DETENTION AFTER ARREST AND
IN-CUSTODY INVESTIGATION: SOME
EXCLUSIONARY PRINCIPLES
BY JAMES R. THOMPSON*
WHEN A SUSPECT has been lawfully arrested on probable cause it may
still be uncretain whether there is sufficient evidence to justify proceeding
further with the case. If so, in-custody investigation after arrest becomes
very important. It not only enables the building of a better case against the
guilty, but provides an opportunity to clear innocent persons without sub-
jecting them unnecessarily to a criminal charge and trial.' This article ex-
amines some of the principal means of in-custody investigation employed
by the police, notably interrogation, 2 and the rules which govern such
investigation.
Some areas have been omitted from consideration. Those statutory pro-
visions which govern the conduct of the police in the treatment of prison-
ers, e.g., persons in custody shall be treated humanely and provided with
proper food, shelter and, if required, medical treatment, 3 the conduct of
a preliminary hearing, and the police routine in booking and processing
prisoners, either need no explication or are beyond the scope of the article.
And other matters, e.g., the law of coerced confessions, are likewise not
discussed either because they do not really go to criminal procedure, or
depend in the last analysis upon the facts of specific cases, or are matters
worthy of extended treatment by themselves.
Explored hereafter is the right of the police, or more nearly correct,
the power of the police to subject an accused in custody to investigation by
taking his fingerprints, by taking his photograph, by examining his clothing,
by obtaining blood, breath, or handwriting samples; or by interrogating him
(a) in the absence of counsel, and (b) without taking him before a magis-
trate for a preliminary hearing. Because we are used to trying cases on
exclusionary principles, rather than upon abstract questions of whether
police conduct was right or wrong, the emphasis is upon what happens when
the police take actions which are seemingly in conflict with decisional, stat-
utory, or constitutional law.
• JAMES R. THOMPSON. LL.B. Northwestern University; Assistant Pro-
fessor of Law, Northwestern University; Assistant Editor-in-Chief of
the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science.
I Cf. ILL. REV. STAT. ch. 38, § 107-6 (1965): A peace officer who arrests a person
without a warrant is authorized to release the person without requiring him to appear
before a court when the officer is satisfied that there are no grounds for criminal com-
plaint against the person arrested.
2 Interrogation includes the re-enactment of a crime by the accused.
3ILL. REV. STAT. ch. 38, S 103-2(c) (1965).
390

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