[FreeTally]

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that police may legally use cunning and deception in interrogating suspects. Police may lie to suspects, telling them that they possess evidence incriminating the suspects, or that witnesses or accomplices have made statements incriminating them.

Yeh, another great Supreme Court decision.(sarcasm)

The demand that all interrogations be videotaped, is based on the knowledge that many jurors -- especially urban blacks -- will find such practices repugnant, and use them as a pretext for acquitting guilty defendants.

Awwww, poor coppers. You mean they have to follow laws too?? Say it aint so.

A videotaping requirement would also bog down manpower and money in the procuring, taping, cataloguing and storing of videotapes,

Yeh, cameras are soooooooo expensive and cataloging them is such a chore. I mean, justice just isn't worth the hassle.

and cause detectives to censor themselves during interrogations, thus compromising their effectiveness.

LOL!!! A cop is afraid to say or do something on camera, and that is a bad thing?? Are you telling me a cop would hold back on 100% legal methods because he/she is being taped? Get real.

As one prosecutor said, videotaping would make it impossible to get convictions via confessions -- which is the point.

One prosecuter covering for the others. Videotaping would make sure everyone is telling the truth about the interogation.

Further, amid specious claims of "coerced confessions,...."

Hmmm, claims of coerced confessions are "specious"? Yep, no truth to any of them, I'm sure.

the requirement that all future interrogations be videotaped would be used, ex post facto, to re-open the cases of the justly convicted, in order to get new trials with suppressed confessions, which would lead to many of America's most vicious criminals being released to rape and murder again.

Yep, there you have it folks! If interogations were taped, then no criminal could ever get convicted! Society would collapse if police had to carry this "heavy burden". LOL!!!

Some of the author's points are valid, but he is off his rocker here and sounds just like all the "law and order apologists".

[mrustow]

You have eliminated the distinction between lawful and unlawful interrogation methods.

[eno_]

The "system" of obtaining confessions is no system at all. It encourages abuse. Just remember this: If you are smart enough to keep your yap shut, and have $50k in the bank to pay a criminal lawyer, you can get away with most anything as long as you were not videotaped dancing in a pool of your victim's blood. The murder solution rate is below 70% on average, and most other crimes have much lower solution rate and reporting rate. Until the police are focused on the crime that matters (hint: it isn't the Drug War, which is what created our overloaded system of snitches and intimidation tactics) and are forced to go through an open and adversarial process, "justice" is a joke.