Criminal confessions: overcoming the challenges - interview and interrogation techniques

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Nov, 2002 by Michael R. Napier, Susan H. Adams

(2.) Paul G. Cassell, "Symposium on Coercion: An Interdisciplinary Examination of Coercion, Exploitation, and the Law," and "Coerced Confessions: Balanced Approaches to the False Confession Problem: A Brief Comment on Ofshe, Leo, and Alsehuler," Denver University Law Review 74 (1997): 1127.

(3.) Brain C. Jayne and Joseph P. Buckley, "Interrogation Alert! will Your Next Confession Be Suppressed?" The investigator, winter 1998, special edition, 11 and 12. See also, Reid and Associates Web site at http://www.reid.com.

(4.) Richard A. Leo and Richard J. Ofshe, "The Consequences of False Confession: Deprivations of Liberty and Miscarriages of Justice in the Age of Psychological Interrogation," paper prepared for the Annual Meetings of the Law and Society Association in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 30, 1997.

(5.) Richard J. Ofshe and Richard A. Leo, "The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation: The Theory and Classification of True and False Confessions," Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 16 (1997): 241.

(6.) Richard J. Ofshe and Richard A. Leo, "Symposium on Coercion: An Interdisciplinary Examination of Coercion, Exploitation, and the Law" and "II. Coerced Confessions: The Decision to Confess Falsely: Rational Choice and Irrational Action," Denver University Law Review 74 (1997): 998.

(7.) Gisli Gudjonsson, The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions, and Testimony (Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, 1992), 209, 229, and 301.

(8.) David Vessel, "Conducting Successful Interrogations," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, October 1998, 1-6.

(9.) Warren D. Holmes, "Interrogation," Polygraph 24, no. 4 (1995): 241.

(10.) Supra note 7, 259.

(11.) David E. Zulawski and Douglas E. Wicklander, "Special Report 1: Interrogations, Interrogation: Understanding the Process," Law and Order, July 1998, 87.

(12.) Parenthetical emphasis and clarifying comments added. The charges against the alibi witness subsequently were dropped.

(13.) Supra note 7, 23.

(14.) Supra note 11, 85.

(15.) Supra note 9, 253.

(16.) Supra note 5, 194-195.

(17.) Gerald M. Caplan, "Questioning Miranda," Vanderbilt Law Review 38, no. 6 (November 1985): 1,417.

(18.) Supra note 9, 253.

(19.) Michael R. Napier and Susan H. Adams, "Magic Words to Obtain Confessions," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, October 1998, 11-15.

(20.) Supra note 3, 9.

(21.) Supra note 3, 9.

(22.) Supra note 6, 999 and 1,000.

(23.) Supra note 5, 204, 205.

(24.) Fred E. Inban, John E. Reid, Joseph P. Buckley, and Brian C. Jayne, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, 4th ed. (Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers, Inc., 2001).

(23.) Supra note 11, 84.

(26.) Supra note 9, 253.

Mr. Napier, a retired FBI special agent, serves as a consultant for interviewing strategies with a private firm in Manassas, Virginia.

Special Agent Adams is an instructor with the Law Enforcement Communication Unit at the FBI Academy.