article_snippet: Perhaps the largest and best known category of hearsay exceptions is admissions and confessions.
article_snippet: admissions and confessions can be admitted against a defendant.
article_snippet: The thinking is that people don't ordinarily confess to something unless people did it.
article_snippet: The Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination clause states that "[n]o person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself ...
article_snippet: By definition then, compulsory self-incrimination requires, well, "compulsion.
article_snippet: The kind of compulsion targeted by The Fifth Amendment is governmental coercion.
article_snippet: It's true that confessions deemed "involuntary" are often excluded at trial under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.  
article_snippet: However, a confession will only be considered involuntary if it is the product of police activity.
article_snippet: The bottom line is this: A voluntary confession must be the product of a rational intellect and a free will, not physical intimidation or psychological pressure.
article_snippet: Admitting to killing "them all" would fall into this category.