When a confession is made after a service member has been subjected to extended duty hours or a prolonged period of questioning, the burden is on the government to prove that the confession was voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt. This is a very high standard. The military courts recognize that factors like sleep deprivation, physical exhaustion, and mental fatigue can be inherently coercive and can overbear a person’s will, making any subsequent confession involuntary. The voluntariness of a confession is a preliminary question of law that is decided by the military judge outside the presence of the panel members.
A military defense attorney will file a motion to suppress the confession. At the hearing on the motion, the attorney will present detailed evidence about the circumstances leading up to the confession. This would include the soldier’s duty schedule, testimony from the soldier about their level of exhaustion, and cross-examination of the investigators about the length and intensity of the interrogation. The attorney will argue that the combination of exhaustion and the pressure of interrogation created a coercive environment where their client’s will was overborne.
The military judge will then look at the “totality of the circumstances.” A confession made by a soldier who has been awake for 36 hours and has been questioned for 8 hours will be viewed with extreme skepticism. If the judge finds that the government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the confession was the product of a free and unconstrained choice, they will rule it involuntary and suppress it. This prevents the government from using sleep deprivation and exhaustion as an interrogation tactic.