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Criminal Procedure

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

False confessions

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Still Handcuffing The Cops? A Review Of Fifty Years Of Empirical Evidence Of Miranda's Harmful Effects On Law Enforcement, Paul Cassell, Richard Fowles Jan 2017

Still Handcuffing The Cops? A Review Of Fifty Years Of Empirical Evidence Of Miranda's Harmful Effects On Law Enforcement, Paul Cassell, Richard Fowles

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The fiftieth anniversary of Miranda v. Arizona offers a chance to assess how the decision has played out in the real world and, in particular, to determine whether it has harmed law enforcement. In this Article, we take advantage of the time since the Miranda decision—now a little more than fifty years—to see whether it has produced the predicted harmful consequences. In particular, we survey the available empirical evidence about Miranda’s effects on law enforcement. We collect confession rate data, both from the time of Miranda and since, to assess whether Miranda caused confession rates to fall. We also review …


Can We Protect The Innocent Without Freeing The Guilty? Thoughts On Innocence Reforms That Avoid Harmful Tradeoffs, Paul Cassell Jan 2017

Can We Protect The Innocent Without Freeing The Guilty? Thoughts On Innocence Reforms That Avoid Harmful Tradeoffs, Paul Cassell

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

It is fundamentally important that the criminal justice system accurately separate the guilty from the innocent. But many recent reform measures from the innocent movement rest on shaky ground. Protecting against wrongful convictions can create tradeoffs. If poorly crafted, a reform measure might not only prevent convicting innocent persons but also guilty persons, allowing dangerous criminals to avoid incarceration and continue to victimize innocent persons. From a public policy perspective, these tradeoffs create concern that reform measures may be cures worse than the disease.

With this caution in mind, it is possible to craft reforms that help to protect the …