A new bill is aiming to reduce false confessions by requiring police in California to record murder interrogations.
On Sept. 28, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1389 into law.
This bill, jointly authored by Senators Steven Glazer and Ed Hernandez and co-authored by a bipartisan group of legislators, requires law enforcement to electronically record interrogations of all murder suspects.
Current law only requires police to record interrogations of juvenile murder suspects.
The Northern California Innocence Project said false confessions are a leading cause of wrongful conviction, particularly in murder cases, when the stakes are extremely high for everyone involved – for the suspects, the victim’s family, and law enforcement.
In 27 of 149 exonerations nationwide in 2015, false confession was a key cause of the wrongful conviction; 22 of those 27 exonerations involving false confession were murder cases, according to a recent National Registry of Exonerations report.
“When the wrong people are convicted of murder, the actual murderers remain free, and innocent people lose their freedom,” said Hadar Harris, executive director of the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University School of Law. “Recording interrogations supports proper interrogation practices, creates a record of a false confession should one occur, and helps law enforcement document evidence to convict the actual perpetrator – all vitally important in murder cases.”
The bill – sponsored by a coalition that includes the Northern California Innocence Project, California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego, Loyola Law School’s Project for the Innocent, the ACLU, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and the California Public Defenders Association – received strong bipartisan support in both the Senate and Assembly and was endorsed by the California Police Chiefs Association.
"For decades, police argued that they did not have the resources to record interrogations. Now that everyone carries cell phones with recording capability, that argument is hard to make,” noted Professor Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project. "Recording interrogations makes a clear record of what was said and also allows a fact finder to judge context, stress and sincerity. It helps in getting to the truth, which is in everyone's interest."
Governor signs new bill to require recording of murder interrogations
- Lake County News reports
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