People of Michigan v. Joshua Lamar-James Stewart

Summary

The Court held that the defendant's statements during a police interrogation were involuntary because the totality of the circumstances, including his age, early-morning questioning, implied leniency, false claims about evidence, and the officers' combative language, overbore his free will. Admission of the statements violated his constitutional rights, and the error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the statements supplied the principal evidence linking him to the robberies. The Court reversed the Court of Appeals and remanded for a new trial.