California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Wallace, 12 Cal.Rptr.2d 230, 9 Cal.App.4th 1515 (Cal. App. 1992):
Moreover, it is clear that "where a person in authority makes an express or clearly implied promise of leniency or advantage for the accused which is a motivating cause of the decision to confess, the confession is involuntary and inadmissible as a matter of law. [Citation.] Mere advice or exhortation by the police that it would be better for the accused to tell the truth, when unaccompanied by either a threat or a promise, does not, however, make a subsequent confession involuntary. [Citation.]" (People v. Boyde, supra, 46 Cal.3d at p. 238, 250 Cal.Rptr. 83, 758 P.2d 25.) We cannot conceive how exhortation by one's wife to tell the truth, accompanied by no matter what catalog of domestic imprecations, can reasonably be construed as a cognizable violation of constitutional rights.
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