BOSTON, March 10, 2014—Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley last week hosted a training to help law enforcement officials recognize and prevent false confessions as part of an ongoing professional development program for Suffolk prosecutors.
Conley welcomed retired Detective Jim Trainum, formerly of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, and retired FBI Special Agent Gregg McCrary, formerly of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, for the seminar, entitled “Witness Interviews: Investigative Processes, Practices, and Pitfalls.” Trainum, who received the 2009 Champion of Justice Award from the Innocence Project, is a frequent presenter on police work, including the causes of false confessions. A legendary criminal profiler, McCrary was the principal instructor for the First International Symposium on Criminal Investigative Analysis and is an adjunct faculty member in the forensic psychology and criminal justice programs of Marymount University.
Retired FBI Agent Gregg McCrary speaks at a training for Suffolk County prosecutors on interview techniques to prevent false confessions. Former Washington DC homicide detective Jim Trainum also took part, presenting a case study from his own years as a homicide detective. The seminar was hosted by Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley as part of his continuing education policy that ensures members of his office are informed on new and emerging fields of criminal law and the latest investigative practices.
Held on Friday and Saturday at Conley’s downtown office, the training was mandatory for Suffolk homicide prosecutors but open to assistant district attorneys throughout the office, as well as Boston and State police homicide detectives. It was organized and facilitated by Assistant District Attorney Donna Patalano, an appellate prosecutor and the DA’s chief of Professional Training and Ethics, and Assistant District Attorney David Fredette, chief of Education and Training and currently assigned to the DA’s Homicide Unit.
“Trainings like this one keep Suffolk prosecutors and our police partners up to date on a constantly-evolving body of research and best practices,” Conley said. The event was part of an ongoing continuing education program that ensures Suffolk prosecutors are up to speed on fundamental and emerging areas of law: Though Massachusetts doesn’t require legal education for lawyers once they pass the bar, Conley implemented a policy in 2012 that mandates at least 12 hours of continuing education per year.
McCrary drew on his experience as an investigator and consultant to describe some of the traps that investigators can fall into when approaching a case.
“The best way to avoid a trap is to understand how it works,” he said, describing psychological phenomena such as belief perseverance, in which subjects hold fast to a theory even in the face of contradictory evidence, and confirmation bias, in which subjects take note of evidence that supports their theory but fail to note evidence that contradicts it.
Trainum presented a summary of an investigation he’d conducted decades earlier in which a suspect ended up falsely confessing to her role in a homicide she had no part in. Video clips from the interview room showed no signs of coercion – in fact, attendees saw, he was soft-spoken and relaxed throughout.
“We’re all careful not to contaminate physical evidence,” he said. “We have to be just as careful not to contaminate an interview by revealing information to the suspect.”
Trainum and McCrary agreed that Boston and State police detectives performing interviews with suspects in Suffolk County have a strong advantage over other jurisdictions in preventing false confessions: They record those interviews on video from start to finish, allowing multiple levels of pre-trial review by supervisors, prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys.
According to the Innocence Project, “The electronic recording of interrogations, from the reading of Miranda rights onward, is the single best reform available to stem the tide of false confessions.” In Suffolk County, investigators have been utilizing that practice since 2004.
“We’ve been called the ‘gold standard’ in preventing wrongful convictions, but that’s not a success we’re going to rest on,” Conley said. “We’re going to keep moving the ball forward to build the strongest, most ethical cases we can.”
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
