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Davis & Leo on Interrogation by Pragmatic Implication

By Lawrence Solum

Deborah Davis and Richard A. Leo (University of Nevada, Reno and University of San Francisco - School of Law) have posted Interrogation Through Pragmatic Implication: Sticking to the Letter of the Law While Violating its Intent (OXFORD HANDBOOK ON LANGUAGE AND LAW, L. Solan, P. Tiersma, eds., Oxford, 2010) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In response to increasing evidence that police interrogation procedures can and do elicit false confessions from innocent suspects, American Courts have offered guidelines intended to protect suspects from coercive interrogations and to ensure the voluntariness and reliability of any confessions obtained. However, faced with legal prohibitions against police promotion of suspect confessions through use of physical coercion or explicit incentives for confession, American police interrogation tactics have evolved to rely on the use of pragmatic implication to nevertheless convey strong incentives for suspects to confess guilt ? practices that have essentially diluted or circumvented the intended protections and that have continued to elicit false as well as true confessions. This chapter outlines the sequence of common American police interrogation procedures, with emphasis on specific wording and tactics making use of pragmatic implication ? in violation of the intent of the law ? to convey promises of leniency for confession or harsher treatment in response to continued denial.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on January 26, 2010 (boomark / email).