Police Interrogation Techniques Essay

So the big question is what do potential jurors know about police interrogation techniques? According to the study, by R.A. Leo, they do not know very much. The participants to the study said that all of the police interrogation techniques were coercive, however they believe that it did not lead to false confessions. In they study it says, “In general, participants rated many interrogation tactics as slightly coercive, likely to elicit a true confession, and unlikely to elicit a false one. Indeed, all but one of the coerciveness and true confession category means fell above 3, whereas all but one of the false confession category means fell below 3 (the midpoint of the scale, with 1¼not at all coercive and 5¼extremely coercive)” (Leo 387). As the study states that they thinks all but one category is coercive and likely to elicit a true confession. A great example of coercive techniques eliciting a false confession would be the Norfolk Four. The interrogation techniques were coercive which caused four people to confess. It says one has had his conviction overturned. This was with the recommendation of the eleven jurors and the FBI. This shows that coercive techniques can elicit a false confession.

Also the majority of them still are fighting to have their names cleared. These men’s lives have been ruin. They have to register as sex offenders, which entails them having to ask any one that would be their neighbor if it were ok for them to move into their neighborhood. Also they have the stigma of being convicted killers even though there was no evidence linking any of them. Another interesting point is that no one was willing to help them in our criminal justice system. They had to go to outside help and the Innocence