Police Interrogation Project

Why do people give false confessions

• Psychologist has shown that innocent people are susceptible to confessing because their very innocence works against them
• Interrogators hold you for more than 3 hours without food or water so they can tire you out and make you confess
• Juveniles that are mentally-retarded or have a mental illness are more likely to give a false confession

Case study of Christopher Ochoa

• Nancy DePriest was raped and murdered in her work place in Austin, Texas in 1988
• Ochoa Testified that he and a friend had planned to rob the Pizza Hut, had tied up and raped DePriest, and that he had shot her because she recognized him.
• Years later, letters were sent to the Police Station, then Governor Bush's Office, and the District Attorney's Office

Case Study

• Achim Marino wrote these letters while in prison on other convictions fo 3 life sentences
• He wrote these because he had apparently undergone a religious conversion while attending a program whereby he confessed to the murder of DePriest
• After Police Investigations Ochoa was released on bond January 16, 2001 and officially exonerated on February 6, 2002

#1 played in this case because while Ochoa was being interrogated the state offered to give him a life sentence if he agreed to plea guilty and testify against Danziger

Why should we record the ENTIRE interrogation? What are the benefits and the costs?
The reason we should record interrogations is because sometimes an officer will try to play tricks on a person and make the person say what they want them to say.
A benefit is that from these recordings you can actually see whether or not a person is actually innocent or guilty.