PUBLISHER’S
NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing
number of exonerations in the USA,
Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the
absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on
self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how
vulnerable suspects
(especially juveniles) are
to widely used interviewing methods
such as the notorious ‘Reid
Technique.’
Harold
Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "If the Reid Method can withstand the tsunami of criticism compiled in my paper, then it will be validated as a useful law enforcement tool. I believe, however, that the Reid Method will be shown for what it really is: The Third Degree of the psyche."
WYATT KOZINSKI:
-------------------------
STORY: "The Crime Report: "Third Degree Lite: The Abuse of Confessions," by Wyatt Kozinski, published by The Crime Report on September 7, 2017. (Wyatt Kozinski
is a student at the University of Virginia Law School. He has an
undergraduate degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of
California at Irvine.)
GIST: "This year 20 million viewers of Making a Murderer had ring-side seats to the interrogation of Brendan Dassey. The video is a play-by-play of how to extract a confession using what is known as the Reid Method. This interrogation technique is employed by virtually every law
enforcement agency in North America. Over the past half-century,
hundreds of thousands of officers have been trained to use it. The point
of the Reid Method is not to gather information that will help solve
the crime; it is to obtain a confession from a suspect that the police
have decided is guilty. To that end, the detectives bullied and cajoled their 17-year old,
73-IQ suspect, all the while feeding him information about the case,
which Dassey compliantly regurgitated. These were not overzealous,
rule-breaking detectives. They were following protocol. As Justice White put it,
“A confession is like no other evidence.” It’s a shortcut to a
conviction, a complete reversal of the presumption of innocence. Until
the mid-20th century, the Third Degree was the dominant method of interrogation. The police would beat a suspect until he confessed and lie about it in court. They got away with it because judges looked the other way. Then, in 1931, a commission appointed by President Hoover to investigate Prohibition-related corruption, issued the Wickersham Report, which documented the ubiquitous use of the Third Degree. The report, popularized in a widely-read book, shocked the American public. The Third Degree had to be abandoned when juries started rejecting
confessions and doubting police witnesses. This left police without an
effective method of extracting confessions. Into this void stepped John
Reid, who obtained convictions in several high-profile cases, including
that of Darrell Parker in 1955. Reid touted his technique as a reliable way of obtaining confessions without physical abuse. The Reid Method embodies the spirit of the Third Degree. It seeks to
overcome the suspect’s will by deploying coercive psychological tactics,
many of them on display during the Dassey interrogation: magnifying his
feelings of helplessness by isolating him for extended periods; lying
that there’s overwhelming evidence against him, or that he flunked a lie
detector test; minimizing the seriousness of the crime and suggesting,
falsely, that he’ll suffer minimal punishment if he fesses up. The Reid Method coerces confessions from the innocent as well as the guilty. The problem is that, like the Third Degree, the Reid Method coerces
confessions from the innocent as well as the guilty. There are many
proven false confessors: The Central Park Five, Norfolk Four, Beatrice Six, Jeffrey Deskovic, and countless others. As of 2004, Professors Steven Drizin and Richard Leo had identified 125 such cases. (An update is currently being compiled.) Sometimes, innocent defendants even come to believe in their own guilt.
These are not isolated incidents. Because the Reid Method employs such
brute psychological tactics, these are foreseeable, even expected,
results. Reid &Associates, a private organization found to train police officers in the Reid Method, claims that false confessions result only from abusing the method. But Darrell Parker, who was interrogated by Reid himself, was found factually innocent and exonerated 50 years later. Moreover, the Reid Method’s tactics are inherently subject to abuse.
For example, it is common for interrogators to feed suspects details
known only by investigators and the perpetrator. At trial, prosecutors
then argue that the confession must be genuine because it contains
details that only to the culprit would know. In Dassey’s case, Prof. Leo found that approximately half of the 17 corroborating pieces of evidence claimed by the prosecution were prompted by interrogators. The Dassey District Court recounts many of these, the most remarkable of which concerns the shooting. The detectives work hard to get Dassey to volunteer that the victim
was shot in the head, but come up short again and again. Finally, an
exasperated detective says: “I’m just going to come out and ask you—who
shot her in the head?” Dassey responds that Avery did and, in doing so, incriminates himself. In Miranda v. Arizona,
the Supreme Court identified the Reid Method as an engine for stripping
suspects of their Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights. The Court designed
the Miranda warnings to give people the keys to the interrogation room door, but in reality, very few effectively exercise their Miranda rights..........If the public were to become aware of psychological torment inflicted
on criminal suspects using the current Reid Method, many of them
innocent, they would force law enforcement to adopt new methods of
interrogation that do not trample on constitutional rights. America is waking up.
It’s time for another Wickersham Commission to investigate the uses and
abuses of the Reid Method by federal, state and local law enforcement
authorities—some 20,000 nationwide. Wickersham II should include
representatives of all interested parties—police, prosecutors, defense
attorneys, criminal justice scholars and, most importantly, exonerated
false confessors who can report first-hand how they came to inculpate
themselves in heinous crimes they did not commit. If the Reid Method can withstand the tsunami of criticism compiled in my paper,
then it will be validated as a useful law enforcement tool. I believe,
however, that the Reid Method will be shown for what it really is: The
Third Degree of the psyche."
The entire story can be found at:
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/09/07/the-third-degree-lite-the-abuse-of-confessions/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
The entire story can be found at:
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/09/07/the-third-degree-lite-the-abuse-of-confessions/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
