Library of Motions – Motion for Hearing On Voluntariness of Any Admission or Confession

TO THE HONORABLE JUDGE OF SAID COURT:

NOW COMES the Defendant, (DEFENDANT’S NAME) in the above?styled and numbered cause, by and through Defendant’s attorney of record, and respectfully requests the Court as follows:

To excuse the jury before any evidence of an admission or confession, whether written or oral, is admitted in the presence of the jury.

Defendant makes this request based on the United States Constitution, Amendments V, VI and XIV; the Texas Constitution, Art. l, Sec. 10; the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Arts. 38.2l through 38.23; and Lopez v. State, 384 S.W.2d 345 (Tex. Crim. App. l977). See also, Masters v. State, 545 S.W.2d l80 (Tex. Crim. App. l977).

Defendant further requests the Court to instruct the prosecuting attorneys to ask no question in the presence of the jury concerning (l) admissions and/or (2) confessions, whether oral or written, whether incriminating or exculpatory, until a hearing has been given to the Defendant outside the presence of the jury, with Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law filed by the Court.

Defendant further says that at the time of various conversations, if any, with certain law enforcement officers, the Defendant was either under arrest or substantially deprived of freedom by the attendant conduct of the officers and surrounding circumstances.    WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, the Defendant respectfully prays that the Court grant this Motion in all things.

I, the undersigned, hereby certify that a true and correct copy of the foregoing Motion for Hearing on Voluntariness of Any Admission or Confession was forwarded to Mr. Bill Hill, District Attorney, Frank Crowley Court Building, 133 North Industrial Boulevard, Dallas, Texas 75207, on this the ________ day of ___________, 200___.

ON THIS the _______ day of ______, 200___, came on to be heard the foregoing Motion for Hearing on Voluntariness of Any Admission or Confession, and same is hereby GRANTED/DENIED, to which action Defendant excepted.