The Reid Technique, Benfair, By Adam Benforado

Our interrogation tactics have come a long way from using physical force to retrieve incriminating evidence, which was referred to as the “third degree”, to non-violent methods of obtaining information. We’d like to think that the system we have instilled in America is perfect and fair, but that is far from the reality. Although we have eliminated physical force from interrogations, the new equivalent implemented to the third degree is psychological torture. The nation-wide system used to interrogate potential suspects- the Reid Technique- is heavily flawed and corrupt. In his book Unfair, author Adam Benforado, unveils the truth behind modern interrogation style: it coerces suspects into producing false confessions by subjecting them to grueling

There are nine steps to the interrogation process, but before the steps are implemented, there’s an initial interview to determine guilt or innocence. During this time, the interrogator attempts to create a rapport with the suspect by using casual conversation to establish a non-threating atmosphere. Often time, people are more comfortable when they feel they can relate to the person they are talking to, so the interrogator may claim to share some common beliefs or interest. If the suspect starts talking to the interrogator about harmless things, it becomes harder to stop talking or start lying later, after when the discussion turns to crime (dying words). In the initial investigation, the investigator will observe the suspects verbal and non-verbal reactions, this information will help establish a baseline reaction before the stress commences; later on in the investigation, the baseline will help the interrogator determine if the suspect is telling the truth or lying. Now the investigation can proceed with the nine-step process. First step, direct positive confrontation, involves directly confronting the suspect with a statement that it is known that he or she committed the crime. Often, the police lie and describe nonexistent evidence that points to the suspect as the offender. The second step, theme development, is the step in which the police present a hypothesis about the

Even those who should have a clear sense of the an interrogation, fail to see the coercion brought upon the suspect that might lead to a false confession, and once a confession has been made, false or true, detectives or police terminates their investigation that could have found potential evidence to exonerate them. Once a confession is obtained, police tend to ‘‘close’’ cases as solved and refuse to investigate other sources of evidence (Leo and Liu) which is why such a high number of innocent people still remain behind bars. Across samples, police-induced false confessions were evident in between 15 and 25% in cases, making it one of the likely leading causes of wrongful conviction (Leo and Liu), but still juries disregard this evidence! Unfortunately, more cases like Rivers are out there. According to the Washington Post, the National Registry ha logged 1,733 exonerating cases of false confession. In one case, a man by the name of Ricky Jackson spent four decades for a crime he did not commit, only to be exonerated by DNA evidence after 40 years. To emphasize, few states, if any at all, courts provides information to the jury regarding how to assess voluntariness, nor do