James Duane (professor)

James Joseph Duane (born July 30, 1959) is an American law professor at the Regent University School of Law, former criminal defense attorney, and Fifth Amendment expert. He received some viral online attention for his "Don't Talk To Police" video of a lecture he gave to a group of law students with Virginia Beach Police Department Officer George Bruch. They explain in practical terms why citizens should never talk to police under any circumstances. The lecture continues to be popular on YouTube and received support from security expert Bruce Schneier. By November 2014 the official release of the video had received over 37,000 views, but this copy of it has gone viral over the years, with over six million views (as of July 2016).

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• you have the right to remain innocent james duane
• Don t talk to the police cops james duane
• References

Using former Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson as support of his "Don't Talk to Police" advice, Duane says, inter alia, that: 1) Even perfectly innocent citizens may get themselves into trouble even when the police are trying to do their jobs properly, because police malfeasance is entirely unnecessary for the innocent to convict themselves by mistake; 2) talking to police may bring up erroneous but believable evidence against even innocent witnesses; and 3) individuals convinced of their own innocence may have unknowingly committed a crime which they inadvertently confess to during questioning. This follows the reasoning of Justice Robert Jackson in Watts v. Indiana.

He has also written about his views that there are bizarre legislative drafting errors in the Virginia Statute on Privileged Marital Communications as well as issues involving the introduction of hearsay evidence at trial (known as "bootstrapping"). Duane, a member of the advisory board of the Fully Informed Jury Association, has also written in defense of jury nullification.

Professor Duane is a descendant of Revolutionary-era leader Judge James Duane.