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 are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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STORY: "Judge excludes expert witness in sexual relations criminal case," by reporter Steve Fry, published by WIBW on January 22, 2020.
GIST: "A Shawnee County District Court judge has ruled to exclude the
testimony of an expert witness during the upcoming jury trial of a
prison dental instructor charged with unlawful sexual conduct with
female inmates. The expert witness testimony would have been
during the trial of Tomas Co, 73, who is charged with six counts of
unlawful sexual relations with a department of corrections inmate over
16 years old, according to District Court records. Co is charged with molesting female
inmates at the Topeka Correctional Facility between 2014 and 2018 while
teaching them how to make dentures, an Associated Press story said. The four-day jury trial of Co is to start on Monday before Shawnee County District Court Judge Cheryl Rios. During a motion hearing on January 16,
Deputy District Attorney Roger Luedke urged the judge to block testimony
by an expert on interrogations and false confessions during Co's trial. Chris Joseph, Co's defense attorney,
told Rios she should deny the prosecution motion to exclude the
testimony of professor Alan Hirsch. Joseph said Hirsch is a nationally
recognized expert on police interviews and interrogations, including the
"Reid Technique," a police interrogation method. Joseph said that technique could affect
the reliability of statements made by someone subjected to questioning
under the Reid Technique. In Kansas law, judges "must assess on a
case-by-case basis whether expert testimony will be helpful to the
jury," Rios wrote in her ruling. "Expert opinion testimony is admissible
if it will be of special help to the jury on technical subjects (with)
which the jury is not familiar or if such testimony (will) assist the
jury in arriving at a reasonable factual conclusion from the evidence,"
the judge quoted an opinion as saying. The Co case isn't factually complex, the judge wrote. "It is well within the jury's ability
to determine whether the witnesses in this case made false accusations
against the defendant and whether techniques used to question these
witnesses resulted in false accusations," Rios wrote. Co's defense attorney will have the
opportunity to establish the reliability of the testimony of the
accusing witnesses through "vigorous cross-examination as well as
argument," the judge wrote. The defense also can challenge the
techniques used by those conducting the initial questioning that led to
the accusations, the judge said. To allow the expert opinion testimony
"would invade on the field of common knowledge and experience of the
jury," the judge wrote. Cross examination, persuasive argument and
cautionary instructions by the defense will provide safeguards against
unreliable witness testimony, the judge said."
The entire story can be read at:
/www.wibw.com/content/news/Judge-excludes-expert-witness-in-sexual-relations-criminal-case-567202121.html
The entire story can be read at:
/www.wibw.com/content/news/Judge-excludes-expert-witness-in-sexual-relations-criminal-case-567202121.html
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.""
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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