Illinois Bill Curbs Coercive Interrogation of Kids
by K. W. Locke
The Illinois legislature recently passed a bill to prohibit police interrogators from lying to kids under 18. According to the Innocence Project, which supports the measure, no other state has enacted such legislation.
Researchers have documented 250 instances when coercive interrogation tactics have led to false confessions. Read about some cases here and here.
To avoid confusion, I should point out that when I use the term "false confession," I'm not talking simply about a person pleading guilty to a crime he didn't commit. That happens a lot, and there are many reasons why.
If a poor person has been sitting in jail for months because unable to make bail, he might well choose to plead guilty just to get out. With each day behind bars, the prosecutor's offer – plead guilty and we'll let you go for time already served – becomes increasingly tempting.
An innocent person of moderate means – who earns a little too much to qualify for free legal representation – may decide it's cheaper to plead guilty and pay the fine than it would be to hire a lawyer. That choice can seem particularly attractive because paying a lawyer is no guarantee of acquittal, and besides that, it prolongs the unpleasantness of being a defendant in court.
People make those choices but that's not what I'm talking about when I say "false confession." I'm talking about confessions resulting from intense psychological manipulation.
Decades ago, interrogators left marks. They called it the "Third Degree."
In 1973, I was a law clerk for a judge in Michigan and got to watch the proceedings in his court. One time, the cops brought in a kid not that much younger than I was. You could tell he'd been beaten. The judge, I'm proud to say, dismissed the charges.
Today, police interrogators know how to rough the person up psychologically. No visible marks!
Coercion Honed to a Science
Often, they use the so–called "Reid Technique." It entails relentless interrogation, carefully designed and structured.
The questioner insists the suspect is guilty no matter how many time he denies it. The interrogator just won't take "I'm innocent" for an answer.
The interrogator lies to the suspect, telling him that others already have confessed and are pointing the finger at him. The cop makes a promise of leniency, or implies that if the person will just confess, this hell will stop and he can go home.
After hours of grilling, the false confession seems to be the easy way out. Of course, it's anything but.
Sometimes, the person even believes what he's confessing. (When that happens, researchers call it a "persuaded false confession.")
In one case, interrogators even convinced a deputy sheriff that his subconscious mind had repressed the memories
of what he supposedly had done. These were very serious offenses -
molesting his daughters and killing babies during satanic rituals - but
he confessed.
Studies have shown that people with disabilities and those under 18 are particularly vulnerable to intense psychological tactics. If the Illinois legislation becomes law, it will be a good start.
However, on June 2, the court declined to consider the petition. The prosecutor isn't giving up. If the governor signs a bill recently passed by the Missouri legislature, she will be able to ask a trial–level court to find that Strickland is innocent.
Read more about it here.
Banner: Screenshot of FBI video of interrogation of Ariel Castro, who confessed to kidnappings, rapes and murders. (Source: FBI via Wikimedia Commons.) Nothing suggests that Castro gave a false confession. He later committed suicide in prison.
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