Police Generate False Confessions Using Coercive Tactics New Book Claims

by Kitty Testa

According to the Innocence Project, “Astonishingly, more than 1 out of 4 people wrongfully convicted but later exonerated by DNA evidence made a false confession or incriminating statement.”

Most of us believe that we would never confess to a crime we did not commit, but many people are unable to stand up to the pressures of police interrogations, and provide false confessions, often with alarming detail.

Now a former Washington D.C. homicide detective has published a book exploring the tactics used to elicit confessions from innocent suspects.

James L. Trainum has 17 years of experience working for the D.C. Metro Police homicide unit, and his interest in false confessions was spurred when he obtained one from a female murder suspect.  He learned through investigation that her involvement was impossible, and the charges were dismissed.

Trainum believes that the problem of false confessions is a training problem, and he outlined the steps that interrogators use to obtain them.

1. Conclude that the suspect is guilty

2. Tell them that there is no doubt of their guilt

3. Block any attempt by the suspect to deny the accusation

4. Suggest psychological or moral justifications for what they did

5. Lie about the strength of the evidence that points to the suspect’s guilt

6. Offer only two explanations for why he committed the crime. Both are admissions, but one is definitely less savory than the other

7. Get them to agree with you that they did it

8. Have them provide details about the crime

For anyone who watched the Netflix Series, Making a Murderer, these steps are chillingly similar to the tactics used in eliciting a false confession from Brendan Dassey.

Trainum, who now consults for the Innocence Project, may well have a more ethical point of view than many police officers who stand by the false confessions they elicit.  Rather than questioning their tactics, many police officers and prosecutors insist that the confessions are not false, even when the weight of evidence shows that they are.

In 1992 in Waukegan, Illinois, Juan Rivera provided a detailed confession to the killing of 11-year-old Holly Staker, even though he was on electronic home monitoring at the time. The interrogation lasted nearly 24 hours.  No physical evidence linked him to the crime, which included rape of the girl, but Lake County prosecutors insisted that the confession was valid. His original conviction was overturned due to trial error, but he was convicted again in 1998.

In 2005 DNA evidence showed that he should be excluded as a suspect in the crime, but prosecutors proceeded and a third jury convicted Rivera.  The Appellate Court overturned his final conviction in 2011, after he spent 20 years in prison, saying that “no rational trier of fact” could conclude that Rivera was the perpetrator of the crime.”

The Lake County State’s Attorney’s office was nationally vilified for defending its repeated prosecutions of Rivera, and for having a hostile attitude for DNA evidence in general.  But regarding the third conviction, one has to wonder about the mindset of the jurors.  Unfortunately for the wrongly accused, faith in the infallibility of police officers can result in conviction even if the evidence says you didn’t do it.

The motive for sticking by such convictions may be at least in part financial.  Rivera was awarded a $20 million settlement in 2015 for his wrongful conviction.   This motive may be at play again in Lake County, Illinois, in the case of Melissa Calusinski, who was convicted for the murder of a toddler at a day care center where she worked.  Calusinski says she was “terrified” during her interrogation with police officers.

Calusinski was recently denied a new trial after her attorney, Kathleen Zellner (who is also representing Steven Avery), brought evidence to the Lake County Court that the X-rays provided to the defense Calusinski’s original trial were useless due to a lack of clarity, when, in fact, a clear set of X-rays were in the possession of the State’s Attorney’s office.  As is the case with most Lake County Judges, the judge that refused Calusinski’s request is a former prosecutor.  Should Calusinski’s conviction eventually be overturned, Lake County will undoubtedly face another large monetary settlement.

In his book, Trainum recommends that investigators replace interrogation with a set of interview tactics called the P.E.A.C.E. model, for preparation, engagement, accounting, closure, and evaluation.  The purpose of the model is to obtain truthful responses as opposed to gaining a confession which can be used in court, regardless of its veracity.

Every wrongful conviction not only denies an innocent person his or her liberty, but also carries with it the economic costs of prison, repeated trials, and damages paid to the wrongly convicted.  One would think that eliminating false confessions would be a goal that law enforcement and citizens would embrace, but unfortunately some of Trainum’s former colleagues have taken to calling him “Benedict Trainum.”  Still, Trainum is hopeful that younger police officers will be open to his suggestions.

“I hope law enforcement reads my book,” he told the Washington Post.  “With my consulting business, I want to be put out of business.  I would rather they make good cases that I can’t touch.”

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