Across the United States, interrogators are often trained to question kids by lying about the evidence against them (“we found your DNA at the scene”) and lying about the consequences of confessing (“if you confess to murder, you’ll go home”). These outdated tactics have resulted in hundreds of proven false confessions and wrongful convictions.  In these cases, innocent youth spend years behind bars, the real perpetrators go free, and community trust in policing plummets. AJFA attorneys have spent years not only representing children who falsely confessed, but also building a deep, multidisciplinary understanding of the ways in which police interrogation can go so terribly wrong. 

 

After years of outreach, research, and education, AJFA attorneys and our partners at the Innocence Project saw a real opportunity to educate lawmakers about the need for change.  Our outreach to law enforcement leadership organizations helped forge a consensus that deceptive interrogation tactics were not needed to solve crimes accurately.  With this support in place, a wave of reform followed in both red and blue states in the early 2020s.  Exonerees testified before state legislatures about their experiences in the interrogation room, followed by expert testimony from interrogators and academics alike.  Lawmakers nationwide concluded that banning these unreliable old techniques would increase public safety and trust by encouraging the use of more modern, effective investigative techniques. Illinois’ bipartisan bill passed nearly unanimously, for example, and in Oregon, the lead bill sponsor was a former police officer.  To date, ten states have outlawed deception during police interrogations of children – and even more states are considering following suit.  The result in those states is a growing system of policing practices that are less likely to generate wrongful convictions and more likely to solve cases correctly while preserving community trust.