Confession cases are some of the most difficult to defend; juries, judges prosecutors and even some criminal defense lawyers often believe that only guilty people confess to crimes. The Brendan Dassey case, shown in the Netflix Documentary "Making A Murderer" has highlighted the problem of coerced and false confessions. In the webinar we focus on both suppressing confessions and persuading juries that confessions are false.

Ad Hoc Military Tribunals Committee Position Paper for the Board of Directors of The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers(fn 1)

There are few aspects of police work more important than questioning arrested suspects in felony investigations. To a large extent, our criminal justice system depends upon the accuracy of how the results are reported including all statements, physical actions, facial expressions, and tones of voice of individuals under interrogation.

The state map has been updated to feature the most current information on pending/enacted legislation and case law in each state, and the full compendium can be downloaded below.

The impact of fatigue on defendants and their statements can be consequential. The most well-known examples come from false confession cases, where suspects (subsequently exonerated) were convicted based on fabricated statements provided under extreme fatigue and duress. Zlatan Križan and Richard A. Leo discuss sleep deprivation and its effects, and they analyze how sleep deprivation and fatigue can undermine the voluntariness and reliability of statements and confessions.

This month Lisa J. Steele reviews Duped: Why Innocent People Confess – and Why We Believe Their Confessions by Saul Kassin.

Although voluntariness is a mainstay of the U.S. legal system, voluntariness and its flip side, coercion, are ill-defined. Likely because of this ambiguity, admissibility decisions for contested confessions have been inconsistent. Some modern-day, often-used interrogation techniques (e.g., investigators feigning friendship) are coercive, even if they appear innocuous and non-adversarial.

As a criminal defense organization, we do not profess to possess expertise in policing practices insofar as those practices do not directly intersect with the criminal justice system. But many police practices do have a direct impact on the treatment of accused persons, the degree to which their cases are litigated justly, and case outcomes. Accordingly, we offer a few key insights, which we hope will find their way into the Commission’s recommendations.

NACDL supports the videotaping of all law enforcement interrogations from beginning to end and calls upon Congress and state legislatures to pass legislation mandating this practice.

Information and reports related to recording of interrogations.

Letter from NACDL Executive Director Norman L. Reimer and NACDL affiliates' leadership to FBI Director James Comey regarding the FBI's policy on recording custodial interrogations, especially for those suspected of felony offenses.

Wrongful convictions stemming from false confessions and a growing field of false confession research have paved the way for greater public understanding of factors that lead to false confessions. The authors explore the underlying causes of false confessions and the importance of state-level reform.

NACDL supported legislation to require recording of certain custodial interrogations in Nevada.

Friend of the Court Lisa Kemler

In the latest editions of its interrogation manual, Reid and Associates adopted several positions that align with the views of its critics. In a nutshell, Reid and Associates directly or indirectly endorsed many measures that could help prevent false confessions. Defense attorneys seeking to suppress confessions can strengthen their arguments by noting when law enforcement officers ignore any of the recommendations in the Reid manual.

The mere act of recording an interrogation does not prevent someone from confessing to a crime he did not commit. To truly protect against false confessions, it is necessary to transform police interrogation methods so that they keep up with science and best-known practices. This article presents a framework to reduce police-induced false confessions.