What would be unfair about using the calls? It's not like we're sneaking anything past them - the inmates are warned that they're being recorded. If they're dumb enough to say something incriminating, it's fair game. And sometimes you get some beauties.

Or the jail mail in which they think only INCOMING mail is being read, so they tell all in their letters and then ask the recipient to be careful what they write back. Yep, it's classic!

When we know we have a good jail phone call we take out the popcorn and cokes and sit around the computer to listen.

I love it when they say things like, "they'll never find the knife," etc. Talk about stoopid criminals!

Yep, they are very helpful. In El Paso County, every time the inmate makes a call, the first thing he hears is a warning that the calls may be recorded.

The moron in jail had no money in his jail account, so he told his gf on the phone how to use his computer to forge a cashier's check. He had to call her back to give her further instructions. The check was deposited in his account the next day, and he called to verify that it had been done correctly.

After her arrest, she bonded out. He called her again & they talked about how they did not know how she got caught, but they were sure that the case could not be proven.

The really funny part was that the inmate asked the girlfriend if she had hired an attorney. She had, but was not going to pay him until she was sure that the case could be proven. When I let the def atty hear that, he was very unhappy with his client.

Jail phone calls are simply human nature in action. All of us really want to tell somebody what we have done.

Jail phones just happen to be recorded conversations that do not involve (1) Miranda -- since there is no interrogation by a state agent or (2) the Fourth Amendment -- since there is no right to privacy associated with a phone call initiated from jail.

TDCAA has an excellent book on the subject, Confessions. And, this summer the regional seminars throughout the State will include 3-hour presentations on Confessions. You will soon be receiving a flyer with the dates, places and times.

JB does a wonderful spiel on jail phone calls that includes some good snippets from the calls they have used in Wilco. He made a believer out of me.

Jail calls are not testimonial in nature so Craford v. Washington does not become an issue nor does the accomplice witness rule. As long as you can get around hearsay, the calls can be great evidence in co-defendant's cases.

We had a case with a call to daddy from defendant Cummings admitted in defendant Aubrey Winfree's trial: "Cummings made a telephone call to her father from jail that was recorded. The recording was admitted in evidence. In the conversation, Cummings told her father that she had given "Aubrey" money to purchase methamphetamine that she intended to resell." State v. Winfree. Cummings took the 5th but Aubrey still caught 12 years.

Actually, statements by the defendant that reveal admissions of guilt are not even hearsay, testimonial or otherwise. The Rules of Evidence provide that admissions of a party-opponent are not hearsay. That's because the people being held responsible for the admissions are sitting in the courtroom. Nothing unfair about confronting a party to the lawsuit with a prior statement, presuming it is voluntary.

So, testimonial or not, Crawford doesn't enter the equation for admissibility of jail phone calls. Another reason to love them.

Maybe I was not clear. The defendant on trial did not make the statements in the call. It was a co-actor talking to her father and she was tried at a later date. The statements were against her interest, so there was an exception to hearsay, but they were hearsay for the defendant on trial.

I never even thought of the statement against interest exception and using one co-defendant's phone calls against the other. That could certainly come in handy when you have one co-defendant that is a blabbermouth and one that is silent.

I am going to print that case off right now.

Very useful in child sexual assault cases. We had one where the defendant called his wife and told him to get the girls to change their story or we would ship the girls off to Thailand.

I had a capital murder case once involving a robbery/murder. The State had plenty of evidence of murder but almost no proof of robbery.

The defendant sent me a letter from jail indicating that he didn't kill anybody..all he did was rob him!!!!

His letter got him the death penalty and he has long since departed due mainly to his own actions. Stupid is as stupid does!!!!

The men charged with beating, stabbing or burning their wives or girlfriends have plenty to say. Lately, their words have been used against them in New York courts as never before.

Details.