Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

Re: Laws on Confession

Virginia as all other U.S. jurisdictions follows the Miranda Rule laid down by the Warren court more than 40 years ago which requires that police officers must advise defendants who are in police custody of their rights, including the right to maintain their silence in response to police interrogation. If a confession is secured under circumstances as described above, the defendant

who makes the confession must have been advised of his Miranda rights beforehand in order for it(the confession) to avoid the taint that it may have been in some manner coerced and therefore must be declared null and void and inadmissible as evidence in court.

As to what a defendant should do in the event that his confession is refuted(sic), one would have to logically inquire as to who did the refuting in order to determine what, if anything, could be done about it at that particular time.

Confessions, unfortunately, are something akin to gifts, in that once given they are usually very hard to get back.