Those who study police interrogations say several practices can
help safeguard against wrongful convictions.
* Electronically record every police-suspect encounter from
start to finish without interruption. Only such a record can show
if police contaminated a confession by feeding crime scene details.
Nebraska and some other states require videotaped interrogations in
serious felony investigations.
* Limit the length of interrogations. Two hours is about
average. Even those who teach police interrogation agree more than
six hours is coercive. The surviving videos from the Beatrice
investigation run about two hours or less.
* The courts should more closely scrutinize the legal use of
deceit by interrogators. Police deception should be used with care
and not at all on children or mentally retarded suspects.
* Ban police psychologists from both interrogating suspects and
providing therapy for them. Forensic psychologists can legitimately
produce criminal profiles or help investigators with lines of
questioning.
As an additional safeguard, DNA testing should be extended to
all defendants when guilt is in doubt, regardless of how they
pleaded to charges.
"One of the enduring lessons of this case is that Nebraska and
other states should not preclude defendants who have pled guilty
from seeking DNA testing," said Steven Drizin, legal director for
the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University.
