A recent NIJ report found that if you collected all the decisions finding a confession voluntary because the suspect wasn’t handcuffed and was offered a Coke – they would make enough paper mache to cover the Great Wall of China. Deciding the voluntariness of a confession without knowing that police interrogation is a scripted bag of tricks is like going to the movies and shouting “Look out behind you!” when the villain sneaks up behind the hero.
Here’s a short synopsis of the leading police interrogation manual. Not a word is made up.
And the Truth is that the suspect is guilty, or we wouldn’t be interrogating him.
INNOCENT SUSPECT GUILTY SUSPECT
Faced with the choice between admitting to an accident or being charged with an intentional crime, the suspect will naturally chose the accident. So he’s admitted to the shooting. Hahahahahahahahah!
Don’t read Commonwealth v. DiGiambattista where the Massachusetts Supremes say that minimizing the seriousness of the crime is “readily understood” by the suspect as a promise of leniency. Hogwash!
Tips and tricks:
England, Wales, New Zealand, Norway and parts of Australia and Canada use the P.E.A.C.E. model which focuses on getting information from the suspect instead of pressuring him to agree to an incriminating story by assuring him that it’s not incriminating.
This is brilliant – I laughed out loud at the picture of deceptive, unrelaxed posture.
And don’t forget to give them the necessary information to confess … or have I jumped to Part 3?