Following New Evidence of Coerced Confessions, NYCLU Calls on Police to Videotape Interrogations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK — In light of recent evidence that police detectives coerced two teenage boys into submitting false confessions in the 1989 attack of a Central Park jogger, the New York Civil Liberties Union today called upon the police department to start videotaping interrogations of serious crime suspects in their custody.

“Coerced confessions wholly undermine the criminal justice system and violate the constitutional rights of defendants,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU. “The videotaping of interrogations is a simple and straightforward way of dealing with this problem.”

The teenagers convicted of raping and nearly murdering a woman who became known as the Central Park Jogger have charged that the confessions obtained by the NYPD were false and coerced. That claim has taken on far greater credibility now that another man has confessed to the crime and new DNA evidence suggests that the teenagers were not guilty.

In a letter sent this morning to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, the NYCLU urged the Department to start videotaping interrogations as a means of eliminating coercion as well as false allegations of coercion in police interrogations.

“Videotaping will protect the accused from coercive interrogations and the Police Department from false claims of coercion,” said Christopher Dunn, Associate Legal Director of the NYCLU. “Everyone benefits from this reform.”

In several highly publicized cases in New York in recent years, law enforcement obtained confessions which were later found to have been false or coerced. Invalid confessions are a national problem in law enforcement, and several jurisdictions have implemented or are studying programs for recording interrogations.

The NYCLU’s letter to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly follows:

BY FACSIMILE AND FIRST CLASS MAIL

September 17, 2002

Raymond Kelly
Commissioner
New York City Police Department
1 Police Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10038

Dear Commissioner Kelly,

In light of recent developments in the Central Park Jogger case, we write to request that the NYPD start videotaping custodial interrogations of suspects in cases involving serious crimes. We believe that such videotaping, which is becoming a part of police practices in other jurisdictions, would yield significant benefits not only to the accused but also to the NYPD and to prosecutors.

As you undoubtedly are aware, the disclosure earlier this month of the confession of Matias Reyes about his role in the rape and near murder of the female jogger and the related disclosures about DNA analysis of material found at the crime scene have cast serious doubt on the validity of the convictions of five teenagers allegedly involved in the attack. A central part of the ensuing public controversy has focused on the reliability of confessions obtained by the NYPD from the teenagers, which were introduced at trial and undoubtedly played a substantial role in the resulting convictions.

The teenagers assert that their confessions were false and coerced through actions of NYPD officers undertaken during interrogations that took place prior to the videotaping of the confessions. That assertion has taken on far greater credibility in light of the recent disclosures, which suggest that the teenagers may have been innocent of the crimes to which they confessed.

There is every reason to believe that unreliable confessions are a substantial problem in law enforcement. A story published by the Chicago Tribune last December year, for instance, reported hundreds of cases in Cook County that involved coerced or otherwise improper confessions since 1991.

And we are aware of numerous recent cases in New York in which post-conviction disclosures exonerated defendants who had confessed to serious crimes.

The videotaping of custodial interrogations would provide critically important information about the validity of subsequent confessions. On the one hand, if defendants in fact are coerced, documentation of this would be available so as to provide a basis for barring improper reliance upon such confessions. It also would provide important information to the NYPD so it could take appropriate steps to eliminate improper interrogation practices.

On the other hand, the videotaping of custodial interrogations would provide the Department and prosecutors with persuasive evidence to rebut unfounded charges of coercion by defendants, which also would substantially benefit the criminal-justice system.

The NYCLU has undertaken considerable research into the issue of the videotaping of custodial interrogations, and we would welcome the opportunity to share this with you and your staff. We look forward to hearing from you about this matter.

Sincerely,

Donna Lieberman
Executive Director

Christopher Dunn
Associate Legal Director

cc: Steven Hammerman, Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters
Gail Donoghue, Office of Corporation Counsel