Mcnabb Mallory Rule Law and Legal Definition
The McNabb-Mallory rule is a federal evidentiary rule in criminal trials that disallows prohibits any "undue delay" in arraignment, and holds null and void any confession, no matter how voluntary, if derived from lengthy delays in bringing the suspect to justice.
The doctrine is not applicable to the states as a constitutional rule would have been, but was designed to implement the guarantees assured to a defendant by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and was prompted by concern over incommunicado interrogation and coerced confessions. While the Supreme Court never attempted to specify a minimum time after which delay in presenting a suspect for arraignment would invalidate confessions, Congress in 1968 legislated to set a six-hour pe riod for interrogation following arrest before the suspect must be presented.
