GIST:  (This story should be read in it's entirety at the link below - sign up for three free articles and you may well want to read more given the high standards of this well-respected  law journal - for now, here is a taste.) "You may not have heard of John E. Reid  and Associates, a Chicago firm that teaches law enforcement officers interrogation techniques. But you will now. Choosing two snippets from When They See Us, Ava Duvernay’s blockbuster series on the false confessions that New York police elicited from five teenaged boys in the Central Park jogger case, Reid has sued Duvernay and the distributor, Netflix, for defamation. It contends that the two bits of dialog—one referring to Reid’s interrogation technique as universally rejected and the other suggesting that the lengthy, arduous interrogations of the five teenagers were consistent with the technique—were false and damaged its reputation and business. Duvernay and Netflix may be able to defend on grounds that the disputed brief statements are true, or opinion, or within dramatic license. But Reid’s lawsuit raises deeper issues and reveals something about the firm itself. The lawsuit picks a precarious path. On one side, Reid claims—correctly—to be the leading trainer of police interrogation techniques in the country. On the other side, though, when courts find that interrogations by those trained in the Reid Technique have produced false confessions, Reid denies any fault: Interrogators must have misapplied the techniques. Reid is like Betty Crocker. If your cake isn’t so great, you must not have followed exactly the instructions on the box. Reid never has acknowledged an uncomfortable truth that this lawsuit may expose if Duvernay and Netflix win: that is, that the Reid Technique, whether used correctly or incorrectly, can cause incalculable harm to innocent people and to justice itself. "

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