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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "John DeCarlo, professor of criminal justice at UNH and former Branford police chief, said in an email, “Research consistently shows that deceptive interrogation tactics, including lying to suspects, can lead to false confessions.” He said while persuading a suspect to confess is “often used to create the illusion that confessing is in the suspect’s best interest,” the tactic “can also lead to a higher likelihood of guilty suspects appearing truthful,” according to researchers. Some have argued lying is necessary for investigators to do their job properly, DeCarlo said, while others call for limiting its use. “The effectiveness of deception in interrogation is also influenced by the type of cues available to the interrogator, with vocal and speech-related cues being more reliable indicators of deceit,” he said. “Exoneration cases and psychological studies have shown that deceptive interrogation tactics strongly encourage innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit,” DeCarlo said. “Studies have shown that lying to suspects about the presence of objective incriminating evidence, such as eyewitness accounts, fingerprints, or other forensic evidence … makes the cost seem much less severe and the benefit (leniency, being released from interrogation) seem much more attractive,” he said."
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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "The ACLU said in its 2022 testimony: “Deceptive interrogation tactics ultimately harm the people whom our state has made most vulnerable: people of color, youth, and people with mental or physical disabilities.” As do other organization citing cases of deceptive interrogation tactics by police, the ACLU noted the case of the wrongful convictions of the Central Park Five, where “police told the five teenagers that the others had implicated them in the crime."
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STORY: "A CT (Connecticut) detective lied to Michelle Troconis in Dulos investigation. Was it legal and ethical?, by Reporter Ed Stannard by Hartford , published by The Hartford Courant on February 8, 2024.
SUB-HEADING: "Michelle Troconis appears in court on day 13 of her criminal trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Stamford, Conn. Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. Troconis is on trial for charges related to the disappearance and death of New Canaan resident Jennifer Dulos.
GIST: "Testimony in Michelle Troconis’ conspiracy trial revealed that detectives had lied to her about finding body parts in Hartford trash bins while investigating the disappearance of Jennifer Farber Dulos.
Farber Dulos went missing May 24, 2019, and her body has never been found. Fotis Dulos, Troconis’ boyfriend, was charged with her murder and later died by suicide. Despite what Troconis was told, there were no body parts discovered, the detectives testified in the trial.
“Was that an interrogation technique to get a reaction?” defense attorney Jon Schoenhorn asked during the trial.
“The reaction that we’re trying to elicit is truthfulness,” retired Connecticut State Police Det. John Kimball replied.
Police are allowed to lie to suspects during interrogations in order to gather evidence, with certain exceptions. The technique was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1969 in a case known as Frazier v. Cupp.
In Connecticut, a law passed in 2023 made it illegal to lie to anyone under 18 during an interrogation.
But whether lying to a suspect is the right way to extract evidence is controversial.
Although “deceptive interrogation tactics by police are commonplace, they frequently result in false confessions, and at least 29% of Connecticut’s wrongful convictions involve false confessions,” the ACLU of Connecticut testified on a 2022 Connecticut bill on deceptive interrogations.
“It’s been upheld by the Supreme Court and it’s pretty standard practice to encourage people to cooperate with the police,” said Michael Lawlor, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven. “It’s been around forever.”
Lawlor, who served as adviser to former Gov. Dannel Malloy on criminal justice issues, said there are limits to using the technique.
“If your goal is to get them to give you money and stuff like that, that’s a crime,” he said. “If your goal is to get them to give you information, that’s one of many ways to do it. … I guess that makes people uncomfortable.”
Lawlor said the kind of lie investigators will tell will not have real-world consequences.
“The cops will typically say, ‘You know, we’ve got your buddy in the other room, and he told us that was all your idea.’ That’s the kind of typical lie, to get people to say, ‘It wasn’t my idea, it was his idea.’ So by saying that, you’ve also incriminated yourself. It’s that kind of thing.”
On the other hand, false promises are not all right, Lawlor said. “Another lie that would not be OK is, ‘If you tell us the whole story you will not be charged with the crime and you’ll be allowed to leave right now,'” he said.
“That would be over the line if in fact they’re going to charge her,” he said.
“The kinds of things that would be typical would be implying that they have more evidence than they have or saying that someone else is throwing them under the bus,” Lawlor said.
John DeCarlo, professor of criminal justice at UNH and former Branford police chief, said in an email, “Research consistently shows that deceptive interrogation tactics, including lying to suspects, can lead to false confessions.”
He said while persuading a suspect to confess is “often used to create the illusion that confessing is in the suspect’s best interest,” the tactic “can also lead to a higher likelihood of guilty suspects appearing truthful,” according to researchers.
Some have argued lying is necessary for investigators to do their job properly, DeCarlo said, while others call for limiting its use.
“The effectiveness of deception in interrogation is also influenced by the type of cues available to the interrogator, with vocal and speech-related cues being more reliable indicators of deceit,” he said.
“Exoneration cases and psychological studies have shown that deceptive interrogation tactics strongly encourage innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit,” DeCarlo said.
“Studies have shown that lying to suspects about the presence of objective incriminating evidence, such as eyewitness accounts, fingerprints, or other forensic evidence … makes the cost seem much less severe and the benefit (leniency, being released from interrogation) seem much more attractive,” he said.
The ACLU said in its 2022 testimony: “Deceptive interrogation tactics ultimately harm the people whom our state has made most vulnerable: people of color, youth, and people with mental or physical disabilities.”
As do other organization citing cases of deceptive interrogation tactics by police, the ACLU noted the case of the wrongful convictions of the Central Park Five, where “police told the five teenagers that the others had implicated them in the crime.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resurce. 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/
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/
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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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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