Michael Crowe Interrogation Case Study

Summary David Simon elaborates to explain what happens in an interrogation room to readers in a passage from “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets,” which caused a couple of television shows. Simon gives points of view from the perspective of the interrogator, which can be a detective or a police officer, as well as point of views from the suspect being interrogated. In his book, Simon bases everything he knows from the police station in Baltimore.

The Reid Technique is the most widely adopted interrogation method used by branches of law enforcement, the military, government entities, as well as private enterprises. To say that it is the unchallenged gold standard would be an understatement, and understandably so. If the main goal of an interrogation is to win a confession from the accused, then there is no greater tool. According to Reid’s own marketing propaganda, 95% Reid-trained survey respondents indicated that their confession rate improved when using the Reid Technique. More than half of them stated that their confession rate increased by more than 25% and nearly a quarter of them said it increased by

The popular television show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigations has been on the air for 12 years, and it has brought forth the behind-the-scenes actions of criminal investigations, even if its portrayals are not always scientifically accurate. This has caused an interest in the forensic sciences that has led most people to a skewed view of how a criminal investigation actually works. The reality of a criminal investigation is that it is generally more tedious and difficult than the theory of criminal investigation would have you believe. By examining the forensic and investigative procedures of the case of Pamela Foddrill, it is apparent that the theory of criminal investigation was not representative of the procedures concerning examination

Hey, Melinda did you know “Deception can occur in any or all three stages of the detecting process during the investigation, interrogation, and court testimony” (Ciske, 2009). Criminals have every reason to expect that law enforcement officers are going to use deception against them, just as well as they lie to escape accusation. The law enforcement officers in this situation must take into account what sorts of methods are permissible and what the costs are. However, law enforcement officers have to take into account a confession is a substantial piece of evidence that can be presented in court. If the police have to lie to get a confession, it’s still up to the judge to determine if the suspect confession seems voluntary. People may disagree with police tactics during interrogation; however, police are not trained psychologist their deception during interrogating of a suspect has solved numerous of crimes. Therefore, law enforcement interrogations are videotaped inside the interrogation room to create an objective record of police questioning to which all interested and potentially interested parties may appeal, suspects, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and juries. (Wakefield & Underwager, 2014)

“It is difficult to prove a causal relationship between permissible investigative and interrogatory deception and testimonial deception.  Police freely admit to deceiving suspects and defendants.  They do not admit to perjury, much less to the rationalization of perjury.  There is evidence, however of the acceptability of perjury as a means to the end of conviction.  The evidence is limited and fragmentary and is certainly not dispositive” (Skolnick, 1982).

The Reid Technique is an interrogation process that consists of two parts, the interview and a nine-step interrogation. The interview, which is non-accusatory in nature, gives the interviewer a chance to gather information related to the case. The interview

The Reid Technique is a nine step process which majority of the nine steps were employed in the Dassey interrogation. The first step is the confrontation, where the suspect is accused of the crime. The goal here is for the interrogator to present real, or fabricated evidence in order to make the suspect uncomfortable.The police began by saying they reviewed what he had said on the Monday prior and that where they are seeing that Brendan is okay from what he's said. The also state that they already know the truth and that they can tell when he is lying. They restate several times through the interview that they know the truth and they have all the evidence to know what the truth is they just want to hear it from Brendan. Brendan does not say

In 1962, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions was written by John E. Reid and Fred Inbau. According to Robert Kolker he wrote, the book breaks down the

For a society that is greatly influenced by Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Minds and Bones, a confession of the offender is seen as an ultimate checkmate of the case because it implies the guilt of the confessor. Thus, a confession, especially the ones with detailed account and perfect representation of emotions (Leo, 2008), outweighs the evidences of innocence and stirs the case against the accused (Kassin & Wrightsman, 1985). People believe that they are open-minded about the possibility of false confession but in reality, the public, law enforcers and justice officials have biases that often infer guilt to the suspect instead of investigating for the truth, which leads to wrongful conviction. According to Leo and Drizin (2004), false confession is the primary cause of law miscarriage (Leo and Drizzin, 2004). False confessors lived many years in jail before being exonerated while others remain imprisoned (Leo and Drizzin, 2004).

There are specific ethical considerations that need to be addressed when investigating Homicide and rape. A few of these ethical considerations are shared between the two such as the investigators mind state. This plays an important role in the preparations required for a successful prosecution. The investigator must be open-minded to any and all possibilities and be un-bias. The investigator must also know how to conduct all the elements of an investigation in the proper manner from a professional and legal aspect.

The officers that interrogated Cathy Woods used the Reid Model which is a nine step model of interrogation that is used to extract false confessions from suspects (Bennel,Forth,Pozzulo). The Reid model is the most used form of interrogation in the United States but has problems because the way it’s used puts a lot of stress on the suspects to confess to a crime they may not even have committed. For example, having interrogations that are hours even days long and denying suspects food, water and even being able to use the bathroom will make people confess just to end the interrogation, which is what happened to Cathy Woods. Cathy Woods’s false confession falls into the Coerced-compliant category because she confessed to a crime she knew she didn’t commit, but did it anyway to end the interrogation. Cathy Woods also vulnerable to false confessions because of her mental illness. To avoid false confessions such as Cathy Woods there must be safety nets in place that would be able to capture these inadequate interrogations. For instance, Saul Kassin a distinguished Professor of Psychology suggests we record all interrogations and have it reviewed by a judge before a trial starts. This way our chances of catching a false confession goes up and we can avoid people who are innocent from serving harsh

A synopsis of the night of the crime, on the night of the crime in 1989, a woman who is identify as Caucasian was jogging at night and was allegedly raped and beaten up. At that night the five teens, who are identify as five African Americans and Hispanics who were treated as suspects in the crime. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) investigated the crime and brought the teens into the interrogation room for questions. As they were being question the interrogation lasted for 30 hours and where they came to a conclusion of a confession. The five teens all confessed to the crime. According to coerced to confess: The psychology of False Confessions stated that,” those five teenage boys who became known as the Central Park Five didn’t commit the crime. They had falsely confessed. Fast-forward to 2002, when the convicted rapist and murder, Mathias Reyes, admitted to the rape of the Jogger.” Due to the result of this, the Central Park five were free. Phycologist study this to see if the investigator try to convince the teens that they have rape the lady that was jogging. Due to this event there were changes in the NYPD of how they conducted their

In police interrogations, interrogators use many different techniques to get the suspect to confess to their crime. In the book The Rag and Bone Shop by Robert Cormier, there is a detective named Trent and he is one of the greatest interrogators and he never fails. Trent was trying to use different techniques to get Jason to confess to the crime, but he didn’t really want to solve the crime, all Trent wanted was for Jason to confess. He wanted to show everyone how great he was and that anyone would confess to him. Trent got a false confession, they are easy to obtain, especially when the suspect in question

The confessions of Ward and Fontenot to raping and murdering Denice Haraway are the most incriminating evidence against the pair. However, these are false confessions and do not prove anything, but would in fact prove that the pair know nothing about what happened to Denice. The events leading up to the confessions are the first indication that the confessions are false, and at the very least tainted. As previously stated, The OSBI administered a polygraph test to Ward to determine his involvement with Denice Haraway 's disappearance. The agent who administered the test, Rusty Featherstone, told Ward that he had failed the test Mayer, 1987, p. 54). This may have been true, and even if it was, it means nothing. If it was not true, then the police had made a false evidence ploy. That is when the police say they have evidence against a suspect in an attempt to get the suspect to confess. If a person has truly committed the crime, they are likely to confess, but if the suspect is innocent, he would just become confused as to how the police have evidence for a crime he did not commit. To elicit a confession, police would continue to insist that they have evidence, until the suspect begins to doubt himself, and perhaps eventually confess. The persistence of the police, in conjunction with a lengthy interrogation would wear down the suspect. Ward 's interrogation went on for five hours before he was ready to confess Mayer, 1987, p. 56).

One of the best training programs to implement into the police department is the Reid interrogation techniques. Interrogation and interviewing techniques became popular in 1947 by John E. Reid and Associates. Joseph P. Buckley stated that “The Reid Technique of Interviewing and Interrogation is now the most widely used approach to question subjects in the world (Buckley P. J., 2000).” There three- parts to the Reid process for solving a crime. The first stage that should be taking is to collect and analyze relative information from the crime scene thing that offers insight to the possible suspect and determine the direction an investigation should take. The second stage of the process interviewing people of interest using Behavior Analysis Interview (BAI) (Buckley P. J., 2000). The Behavior Analysis Interview is a non-accusatory process that allows detectives to interview a suspect using a question and answer procedure to provoke a suspect to show non- verbal truthfulness or deception. The third stage, if the offender has not admitted to the crime an accusatory interrogation is administered (Leave no marks, 2007). The Reid interrogation technique is believed to be a fail proof technique ,however, there are some reservations against using this technique on juvenile offenders (Constitutional Law(n.d). Implementing the Reid technique into the police departments learning curriculum will truly