"I mean if we had captured Hitler would we have given him due process?"
Yep. Look up the Nuremberg trials.
"But then again, I'm also one of those guys who pretty much thinks that in most cases when there is a confession you can pretty much just forego the trial."
It's what usually happens in totalitarian regimes. Unless they go for a show trial. Democratic countries are usually aware that coerced confessions are a real problem and that even in cases of evident guilt it is good to put all the cards on the table and have the facts of the case and the appropriate punishment decided by a third party that's separate from the accused, the accusers and the executive.
Yep. Look up the Nuremberg trials.
"But then again, I'm also one of those guys who pretty much thinks that in most cases when there is a confession you can pretty much just forego the trial."
It's what usually happens in totalitarian regimes. Unless they go for a show trial. Democratic countries are usually aware that coerced confessions are a real problem and that even in cases of evident guilt it is good to put all the cards on the table and have the facts of the case and the appropriate punishment decided by a third party that's separate from the accused, the accusers and the executive.