Criminal Justice: Concern About Confessions

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Confessions, Northwestern Law Professor Fred E. Inbau and Polygrapher John E. Reid depict the modern interrogator as "a hunter stalking his game." They prescribe absolute privacy in a small, bare, windowless room. "Display an air of confidence in the subject's guilt," they urge. Appear to have "all the time in the world." The interrogator strips the suspect's status away by using his first name—"Joe" rather than "Mister"-and slowly moves his chair "closer, so that, ultimately, one of the subject's knees is just in between the interrogator's two knees." Says he: "Your mouth's very dry, isn't it?"

Inbau recommends the sympathetic pitch that anyone in the same fix "might have done the same thing," that the crime had a "morally acceptable motive." Also helpful: "Condemn the victim." With a rapist, for example, the detective should indignantly exclaim: "Joe, no woman should be on the street alone at night looking as sexy as she did. Even here today she's got on a low-cut dress that makes visible damn near all of her breasts. That's wrong!"

Only the Truth. If Joe refuses to admit statutory rape, for example, the interrogator can always claim that the girl is accusing him of forcible rape. Result: "The subject will usually react immediately by making a denial of any force, while at the same time admitting the act of intercourse itself." If Joe still refuses to talk, "point out the incriminating significance of his refusal." Indeed, the law assumes that failure to deny a serious accusation is unnatural, and therefore a sign of guilt, known as an "adoptive admission." As one judge put it: "If you say anything, it will be held against you. If you don't say anything, that will be held against you."

All of which may indicate how badly a suspect needs a lawyer. But if he demands one, argues Inbau, "the interrogator may suggest that the subject save himself or his family the expense." He should then confidently add: "Joe, I'm only looking for the truth, and if you're telling the truth, that's it. You can handle this yourself."

Dominate the Subject. Can he? In Minneapolis in 1962, John F. Biron, 18, admitted mugging an old woman, who later died. Accidentally, his lawyer discovered a police tape that showed how Biron had endured hours of relentless grilling by two hypnotic detectives. ("You're the fella's gonna determine how long you're gonna be buried. You got the shovel. You're diggin' the hole.") Only the tape showed how the detectives had repeatedly lied in promising to send Biron to juvenile court, even though he was legally an adult. When he talked, they charged him with adult murder. After hearing that tape, the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed Biron's conviction. Significantly, he was later reconvicted on other evidence the cops already had.

In Fundamentals of Criminal Investigation, former New York City Detective Charles O'Hara goes far beyond the familiar Mutt & Jeff routine in which a suspect is scared witless by a "bad guy" detective and is then saved by a "good guy" who coaxes him to shame the baddy by talking freely. O'Hara not only stresses "bluff on a split