Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Grits for Breakfast

Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

Recording police interrogations makes loads of sense

I'm increasingly convinced that recording police interrogations would be a win-win idea for everyone in the process. It would provide a lot more certainty when police obtain confessions that the result will stand up in court, plus it prevents or documents unscrupulous police tactics. When a false confession does occur, recordings allow investigators or defense counsel to go back later to identify when, how and why it happened.The New York Times' City Room blog argued this week for recording interrogations, supplying this anecdote related to a false confession in a high-profile NY arson case:As an example of how the police can coax false confessions, the commission made available a videotape of Frank Esposito, who as a 17-year-old was arrested and charged with arson in a fire at Bergen Beach Stables, which killed 21 horses in 2000...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on July 05, 2008 (boomark / email).