James Duane

James Duane (February 6, 1733 – February 1, 1797) was an American lawyer, jurist, and Revolutionary leader from New York. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, a New York state senator, the 44th Mayor of New York City – the first post-colonial American mayor – and a U.S. District Judge. Duane was a signer of both the Continental Association and the Articles of Confederation.

Family and early career

James Duane was the son of a wealthyAnglo-Irish colonial settler. His father, Anthony Duane (c. 1679–1747), was a Protestant Irishman from County Galway in Ireland and first came to New York as an officer of the Royal Navy in 1698. Like others of colonial background, Anthony considered himself merely settling from one part of the British Empire to another as a free subject. Consequently, he maintained strong allegiance to the crown throughout his life, values which he later passed on to his son. He met and courted Eva Benson, whose father, Dirck, was a local American merchant. In 1702 Anthony left the navy, settled in New York, and married Eva. They had two sons before her death. When Eva died, Anthony remarried, this time to Althea Ketaltas (Hettletas), the daughter of a wealthy Dutch merchant family. Anthony entered commerce and prospered, and the couple had a son, James.

James Duane (professor)

James Joseph Duane (born 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 5.29 million views (as of June 2015).

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.