Criminal Justice: A Code for Cops & Confessions

For decades, U.S. police have solved most crimes by questioning suspects-many of whom do not know that they have a constitutional right to silence. Alarmed at police abuses, some eminent jurists now argue that all confessions should be abolished unless made in the presence of lawyers. Equally alarmed, others charge that the result would cripple all law enforcement. Is there a fair, practical compromise?

While the Supreme Court ponders this hottest issue in U.S. criminal law, the prestigious American Law Institute has force-drafted a tentative model code of pre-arraignment procedure. Devised by...