Resumen de On "vague latin phrase" and criminal confessions: Corpus delicti, trustworthiness, and corroboration, and the federal rules oftrustworthiness, and corroboration, and the federal rules of evidence

Samuel A. Honorable, Roger E. Brodman

• This Article addresses the history of the corpus delicti rule in federal and state courts. After highlighting uncertainties and criticisms of the corpus delicti rule, the Article shows that federal courts are applying the trustworthiness-and-corroboration requirement for a criminal defendant’s confession to a crime, even though the requirement is not contained in a key Federal Rule of Evidence. Given this lack of textual clarity, the Article then discusses options to eliminate the uncertainty, ranging from seeking a United States Supreme Court decision to amending the Federal Rules of Evidence.

  These options would provide litigants, advocates, and courts needed clarity and predictability about what is required to admit evidence of a criminal defendant’s confession