Law Commons^™

The Ethics Of Interrogation: How Unethical Interrogations Lead To False Confessions And What It Means For The Criminal, Janelle Havens

Criminology Student Work

Forensic interrogation is a vital step in the process of criminal investigations in order to extract information about suspects and the crime at hand. However, tunnel vision, artificial time constraints, lack of thorough training, and noble-cause corruption can influence how an investigator decides to interrogate a suspect or witness. When these influences are exerted on an investigator, the need to secure an arrest and conviction overpowers the need for justice - this results in false confessions and wrongful convictions. This is otherwise known as “the end doesn't justify the means” mindset. This causes investigators to engage in unethical interrogations, whether …

Analyzing Wrongful Convictions Beyond The Traditional Canonical List Of Errors, For Enduring Structural And Sociological Attributes, (Juveniles, Racism, Adversary System, Policing Policies), Leona D. Jochnowitz, Tonya Kendall

Touro Law Review

Researchers identify possible structural causes for wrongful convictions: racism, justice system culture, adversary system, plea bargaining, media, juvenile and mentally impaired accused, and wars on drugs and crime. They indicate that unless the root causes of conviction error are identified, the routine explanations of error (e.g., eyewitness identifications; false confessions) will continue to re-occur. Identifying structural problems may help to prevent future wrongful convictions. The research involves the coding of archival data from the Innocence Project for seventeen cases, including the one for the Central Park Five exonerees. The data were coded by Hartwick College and Northern Vermont University students …

Full Disclosure: Cognitive Science, Informants, And Search Warrant Scrutiny, Mary Bowman

Mary N. Bowman

Full Disclosure: Cognitive Science, Informants, and Search Warrant Scrutiny

By Mary Nicol Bowman

This article posits that cognitive biases play a significant role in the gap between the rhetoric regarding Fourth Amendment protection and actual practices regarding search warrant scrutiny, particularly for search warrants based on informants’ tips. Specifically, this article examines the ways in which implicit bias, tunnel vision, priming, and hindsight bias can affect search warrants. These biases can affect each stage of the search warrant process, including targeting decisions, the drafting process, the magistrate’s decision whether to grant the warrant, and post-search review by trial and appellate …