united-states criminal-law police
Can a police officer lie?
<p>In the unfortunate event, someone finds themselves being questioned by the police in the US, and they ask for a lawyer, but in an unlikely event the police officer says "you don't need a lawyer you're not under arrest, just being questioned", then the person being questioned proceeds in self-incrimination. </p>

<p>Were their statements legally obtained? </p>

<p>A police officer can lie, and lying does not render a statement inadmissible. But there is a separate area of law regarding self-incrimination and the right to a lawyer. The basic principle is that a person can always assert their 5th Amendment rights, whether or not they are under arrest. When a person is under arrest and has asserted their right to an attorney, questioning must stop and anything that results from further questions is inadmissible.</p>

<p>There is no single factor that distinguishes ordering asking questions from custodial interrogation. For example if you have been dragged by officers to the police station and held in a locked room for hours in the middle of night, one would reasonably believe that you were taken into custody, and interrogation must stop once you request a lawyer.</p>

<p>In <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/429/492.html" rel="noreferrer">Oregon v. Mathiason</a>, 429 U.S. 492, police contacted the defendant whom they suspected was involved in a burglary and they invite him to chat at the station. They lie and say they found his fingerprints at the scene (they did not). He then confesses, they read him his rights, and he confesses again. The confession is admissible, because this was not a custodial interrogation. The relevant question is whether "a reasonable person would have felt he or she was not at liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave".</p>
