Homicide detective's book describes 'How the Police Generate False Confessions'

http://www.nola.com/The Washington Post ^ | 10/20/16

[BBell]

If you have an interest in fairness, justice and preventing wrongful convictions, then the new book "How the Police Generate False Confessions," by former Washington, D.C., homicide detective James Trainum is an important read. It takes you inside the interrogation room to see how investigators extract admissions from innocent people, and how the justice system can fix this persistent problem, seen in high profile cases such as the Central Park Five, the Norfolk Four and the teenaged suspect from Wisconsin in the Netflix series "Making a Murderer."

It's a phenomenon that remains, understandably, incomprehensible to many. Someone "admits" to a crime they did not actually commit, to a police detective of all people, knowing they face a long prison sentence for doing so. Who would do such a thing? In all three of the cases above, young men admitted to committing rape, and in two of them to gruesome murders.

Trainum, 61, spent 17 years in homicide for the Metropolitan Police Department, retiring in 2010. He was the lead detective on the high-profile Starbucks triple murder in Georgetown in 1997, which he eventually helped solve in 1999. But in 1994, Trainum had an eye-opening experience when he obtained his own false confession. After a 16-hour interrogation, a woman told him she and two men had killed a man whose body was found, bound and beaten, near the Anacostia River. She was charged with first-degree murder. But she recanted weeks later, and Trainum found proof that she couldn't have been where she originally claimed at the time of the slaying. The charges were dismissed.

"What did I do," Trainum asked himself, "to convince this person to tell me something she didn't do? How did she get all those details she shouldn't have known?" He realized that implying that her cooperation would get her

[BBell]

Good article and probably a good book. Here are two videos that are worth watching if you have never seen them:

Why You Should Never Talk To Police (1)

Why You Should Never Talk To Police (2)

[MeganC]

Get your asbestos underwear on because the “COPS ARE ALWAYS RIGHT!!!” crowd will be along any moment now to start calling you names because you dare to insiunate that their infallible heroes in black tactical gear would do anything wrong.

[Paladin2]

Beat me to your postings. Good for all to review annually.

Watch old episodes of The Closer

[Paladin2]

Prosecutors are, on average, worse.

[MeganC]

Maybe some day there will be a mechanism to remove their immunity when they knowingly prosecute an innocent person. It’s sad that so many of these lying criminals never face prison time for what amounts to kidnapping someone under color of authority.

[dainbramaged]

Get my lawyer.

[Boogieman]

Yes, the standard police strategy for obtaining confessions is basically a recipe for obtaining false confessions as well.

[gaijin]

later

[Paladin2]

The whole “cop a plea” is another basket of snakes.

[Talisker]

"What did I do," Trainum asked himself, "to convince this person to tell me something she didn't do? How did she get all those details she shouldn't have known?"

Sixteen hours of interrogation might have something to do with it, genius.

[Repealthe17thAmendment]

Or watch “Making a Murderer”, and see what they cops did to Brendan Dassey.

[Kid Shelleen]

Interesting read but why do I get the feeling the whole article was to take a shot at Trump?

[TheTimeOfMan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE

Why you never talk to the police - even though I think most of them are good people.

[Paladin2]

You need another layer of “tin foil” on your hat. Maybe a grounding strap.

[BBell]

I watched it. The way they interviewed that poor kid and basically put the words right in his mouth should have been criminal. The kid was not very bright and when he asked if he would be out in time for 6th period because he had a project due, after he confessed, was just pathetic. You do know Brendan Dassey’s case was overturned but the A.G. of Wisconsin is fighting it.

[jimfree]

The pilot episode of Kojak “The Marcus-Nelson Murders” dealt with the premise in 1973.

[BBell]

Very good advice from these two people, one of whom is a retired LEO.

[Fiddlstix]

Bookmark

[Daffynition]

[Wallace T.]

How honest is this author? One of the victims in the Starbucks murders in 1997 was Mary Mahoney, formerly a White House intern. There were two other people killed. There was $10,000 in cash that was not taken; in those days, Starbucks was mostly a cash business. The fact that the money was not taken would indicate robbery was not a motive.

In 1999, the Washington police department arrested one Carl Cooper for the killings. The Feds sought the death penalty even though the District of Columbia had repealed capital punishment. There are numerous homicides in DC, yet the Feds were considering overriding the District law in this case. Cooper plea bargained the charges to life imprisonment.

Keep in mind the murders occurred during the period of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the Paula Jones lawsuit. Mary Mahoney was a lesbian activist, so unlike with Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton may not have been the predator. Hillary Clinton's sexual preferences are, shall we say, dubious based on anecdotal evidence.

It is probable Carl Cooper was set up to take the fall in the Starbucks murders. If the author helped frame him by obtaining a false, and perhaps coerced, confession, he is guilty of the tactics he reports on. There were no witnesses or forensic evidence tying the killings to a gun Cooper owned or possessed.