Criminal Procedure and Evidence Leeds Law School Criminal Procedure and Evidence Police Station Interviews & Confessions

The Need for Confessions The vast majority of criminal offenders are reluctant to confess and must be psychologically persuaded to do so, and unavoidably by interrogation procedures involving elements of trickery or deceit. The legality of such procedures is well established Inbau, Reid and Buckley (1986)

R v. Ibrahim [1914] AC 599 “It has long been established as a positive rule of English criminal law, that no statement by an accused is admissible in evidence against him unless it is shown by the prosecution to have been a voluntary statement, in the sense that it has not been obtained by either fear of prejudice or hope of advantage held out by a person in authority” (The Judges Rules)

Police Interviews The Most Critical Stage of the Investigation Baldwin J. (1994) Police Interrogations What are the Rule of the game? In; The Right to Silence in Criminal Investigations Morgan D. Stephenson G. (eds)

Police Attitude to Suspects Motson Stevenson and Williams The Effects of case Characteristics on Suspect behaviour Paper Presented to BPS annual conference Cardiff, April 1990

Police Attitude to Suspects Ainsworth (1995a); Vrij (1998a) Failure to obtain confession interpreted as shrewdness on the part of the suspect (especially where suspect is convicted criminal) Suspects anger interpreted as fear of discovery

Police Attitude to Suspects PACE 1984 contributed to a reduction in oppressive interviewing This did not alter the mindset of many officers towards suspects Research indicates that attitude assuming guilt of suspect actually reduces effectiveness on interview

Attitudes and Tactics Baldwin (1993); Moston (1995) Pearse and Gudjonsson (1996) Shepherd (1993) Suggest police are often unprepared when it comes to conducting interviews and behave in ineffectual ways

Attitudes and Tactics Ekman and O’Sullivan (1989) Officers often react to the wrong clues when deciding on whether a suspect is telling the truth Such as appearance or clothing

Requirements of PACE ‘The questioning of a person with regard to his involvement or suspected involvement in a criminal offence which, under Para. 10.1 of Code C must be carried out under Caution’ (Code C 11.1A) Following a decision to arrest a suspect must not be interviewed about the relevant offence except at a police station (Code 11.1)

Investigation Strategies A Police interview in the United Kingdom is a “search for the truth with an emphasis on open mindedness” Sear and Williamson (1999) British and American Interrogation Strategies In; Interviewing and Deception Canter D. Alison L. (eds)

Investigative Strategies Royal Commission on Criminal Justice Home Office Circular 22/1992 and 7/1993 “The Ethics of Police Interviewing” Establishes Ethical Foundation for Police Questioning

Attitudes and Rules Police attitudes to detained interpreted by criminologists as pejorative and negative Open Minded Search for Truth? Contradicted by PACE Officers need reasonable suspicion of guilt in order to justify Stop and Search, Arrest and Detention

Attitudes and Strategies Open Minded approach at odds with the Adversarial System of Criminal Justice The Police are on the Prosecution Team Coercive interviewing discouraged Information gathering? Pressure to confess?

The US Model In contrast to the UK ‘search for the truth’ Police Officers in the US may engage in coercive interviewing and deception ‘Criminals do not have the monopoly on lying’ Deceptive Interviewing compatible with rules on entrapment (Leo 1992, Skolnick 1982)

The US Model Frazier v. Cupp (1969) Murder suspect told falsely that an accomplice had confessed This misrepresentation had not rendered the subsequent confession inadmissible People v. Payton (1984) ‘Gross and intentional trickery may induce confession’

Reid Training Manual “If the defendant believes the police representations to be true, how logically can it matter whether those representations were true or not when a court determines whether that confession was voluntarily made” Steigmann J. People v. Payton (1984)

Reid Training Manual WE WILL SAY OR DO NOTHING THAT WOULD CAUSE AN INNOCENT PERSON TO CONFESS TO SOMETHING THAT THEY DID NOT DO Inbau, Reid and Buckley (1986)

US and Due Process American Legal Philosophy asserts that deception is safe at the interview stage As subjection to due process in court will discover any flaws in the evidence Confessions must be supported by corroborative evidence (circumstantial will suffice)

R v. Mason (1988) 86 Cr.App R 349 Arson - Petrol Bomb Forensic “evidence” found at scene? Court of Appeal rules that evidence obtained after officer lied about suspects fingerprints being found is inadmissible

R v. Tyrer (1989) 90 Cr.App.R 446 Suspect told her children were alone at home while she was in custody Confessed to shoplifting Confession allowed She had no answers to the evidence she had been presented with at interview Worry about the children did not prompt the confession

PACE 1984 s.78 (1) In any proceedings the court may refuse to allow evidence on which the prosecution proposes to rely to be given if it appears to the court… The admission of the evidence would have such an adverse effect on the fairness of the proceedings that the court should not admit it (Prejudicial Effect v. Probative Value)

Problems with Coercion Interrogative Suggestibility... Coerced Internalised Confessions Low Intelligence increases interrogative suggestibility Gudjonsson (1984a)

Interrogative Suggestibility Low Intelligence High Anxiety High Emotionality High Social Desirability Low Self Esteem Lack of Assertiveness

Is PACE a Safeguard? Section 76(2) Judicial discretion forbids the admission before a court of confessions extracted by: Oppression As a consequence of anything said or done

Is PACE a Safeguard? Code C at Part 1 (1.4) Requires Police officers conducting interviews to provide the suspect to be assisted by an appropriate adult if the officers have any suspicion that the person to be questioned is mentally disordered or retarded

Avoiding False Confessions Gudjonsson suggests raising police awareness of the personality characteristics that might underlie false confessions Also advocates greater emphasis on the effects of interrogation strategies on suspects answers to questions

Avoiding False Confessions Memon, Vrij and Bull (1998) Suggest that solicitors receive similar training so that they can better assist clients who may be vulnerable to making false confessions

Avoiding False Confessions There must of course be caution applied in all confession situations and it must be understood that by far the majority of confessions are actually true It is nearly impossible to determine that a confession was in fact false simply because it has been retracted

Solicitors at Police Interviews Law Society Guidelines describe the purpose of solicitors attendance at Police Stations Advice to Clients (Fairness) Advice as to weight of evidence Advantages of Admitting Guilt

‘Quality Control’ Quality interviews lead to safe convictions All interviews are taped under the requirements of s.60 PACE and video taping interviews is becoming more common However few interviews are monitored by either senior police officers or the judiciary Unless something goes wrong!

Witness Statements Closed questions... What colour was the attackers shirt? Requires short concise answer Open Questions... Describe the attackers clothing More detail

Witness Statements Closed questions (interviewer led) may lead to discrepancies Discrepancies that the defence may use to undermine credibility Form MG11 (Section 9 CJA 1969; MCA 1980) Offence to give misleading information on police statement