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Selling Confession: Setting The Stage With The "Sympathetic Detective With A Time-Limited Offer", Richard Leo, Deborah Davis, William C. Follette
Selling Confession: Setting The Stage With The "Sympathetic Detective With A Time-Limited Offer", Richard Leo, Deborah Davis, William C. Follette
Richard A. Leo
The effectiveness of an interrogation tactic dubbed the “sympathetic detective with a time limited offer” was tested. Participants read two versions of an interrogation transcript, with and without the tactic. Those who read the sympathetic detective version believed the detective had greater authority to determine whether and with what to charge the suspect, more beneficent intentions toward the suspect, and viewed confession as more wise. However, regression analyses indicated that for innocent suspects, only perceptions of the strength of evidence against the suspect and the detective’s beneficence and authority predicted the perceived wisdom of false confession. Interrogation tactics were generally …
Commentary: Overcoming Judicial Preferences For Person- Versus Situation-Based Analyses Of Interrogation-Induced Confessions, Deborah Davis, Richard Leo
Commentary: Overcoming Judicial Preferences For Person- Versus Situation-Based Analyses Of Interrogation-Induced Confessions, Deborah Davis, Richard Leo
Richard A. Leo
This article identifies some fundamentally mistaken assumptions underlying admissibility decisions favoring disposition-related expert testimony regarding individual vulnerability to false confession over situation-based testimony describing how the context or nature of interrogation can promote false confessions. The authors argue that it is important to understand both the forces of influence within police interrogations and the individual differences that enhance vulnerability to these forces. Most false confessions occur in the context of interrogation and in response to the sources of distress and persuasive tactics of the interrogation. For this reason, this article suggests that experts asked to evaluate an interrogation-induced confession should …
One Hundred Years Later: Wrongful Convictions After A Century Of Research, Richard Leo
One Hundred Years Later: Wrongful Convictions After A Century Of Research, Richard Leo
Richard A. Leo
In this article the authors analyze a century of research on the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions in the American criminal justice system while explaining the many lessons of this body of work. This article chronicles the range of research that has been conducted on wrongful convictions; examines the common sources of error in the criminal justice system and their effects; suggests where additional research and attention are needed; and discusses methodological strategies for improving the quality of research on wrongful convictions. The authors argue that traditional sources of error (eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, perjured testimony, forensic error, tunnel …