NCJ Number
233415
Date Published
May 2008
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This paper presents materials presented at the 2008 Spring Public Defender Conference held in North Carolina on coerced confessions from Professor Richard Rosen from the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Abstract
Materials included in a presentation from Professor Richard Rosen of the University of North Carolina School of Law for the 2008 Spring Public Defender Conference held in North Carolina include: (1) an article entitled, Why Do People Confess to Crimes They Did Not Commit?, by Steven A. Drizin. The article reviews factors related to false confessions and today's psychological interrogation techniques that lead to false confessions; (2) suggested protocol for client interviewing in confession cases, prepared by Deja Vishny and Steven Drizin. The suggested protocol begins w/ pre-arrest questions to mental health, education level, client custody status, beginning of interrogation/Miranda warnings, and client's denial, admission, to lie detector tests. There are 25 protocols total; (3) electronic recording of interrogations in homicide cases; (4) selected Supreme Court due process voluntariness cases; and (5) list of factors and categories of factors relied on to find confessions coerced in U.S. Supreme Court cases, prepared by Bill Kroll (second year law student, University of North Carolina). Highlights of these factors include: age, counsel, drugs used to assist confession, education, food, interrogation setting, incompetent, length of confinement, mental illness, no prior trouble with the law, relay questioning, trickery, and violate statute/lack of charges.