So if he had been prosecuted for intentionally setting the warehouse on fire, the court in Miller said the confession might have been admissible. Keep in mind, though, that Miller involved an unconditional promise of immunity. That is, the benefit promised by the officer was not conditioned on the suspect s cooperation. Conditional promises are much worse, from the court s perspective, than unconditional promises. When an officer makes the suspect s cooperation a condition of receiving the promised benefit, the courts usually will hold that the confession is inadmissible in any prosecution, even for an offense different than the offense that was the subject of the promise.
Promises can also make statements inadmissible against others .
The Moradilla case began when the police executed a search warrant for the residence of a drug dealer named Moreno. After finding drugs in Moreno s residence, they urged him to confess. They told him that he would be in no greater trouble for selling drugs than he already faced for possessing them. Moreno made several incriminating statements, and the next day told police that he had been involved in a drug-selling operation with Moradilla. Using the statements made by Moreno, the police obtained a search warrant for Moradilla s residence.