State lawmakers are considering prohibiting police from lying about evidence or making false offers of leniency when interrogating juvenile suspects.
State Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown’s (D-New Castle) bill would forbid police officers from telling juvenile suspects they will not face punishment if they confess to a crime, among other misleading interrogation tactics.
Minor-Brown and civil liberties advocates argue young people are especially vulnerable to manipulation, and while Delaware courts have not overturned any juvenile convictions because of false confessions, the state should take precautions to protect young people. “Data has shown that these wrongful convictions can take decades to be revealed, and what we don’t want to do is be reactive," she said. "We want to be proactive so we don’t have to work on legislation like this once it’s already happened to someone in our state.”
State prosecutor AJ Roop says Minor-Brown is working with Delaware’s Department of Justice and other law enforcement groups to provide opportunities for prosecutors to use confessions obtained with deceptive interrogation techniques under some circumstances. “The proposed amendment would allow us to look at it and say, ‘are there other factors that mean it wasn’t necessarily deceptive,'" he said. "If it’s a 17-year-old who’s been arrested 8 times and been through the court process, they’re going to be less likely to be deceived than a 14-year-old who has never been in court.”
The bill would only cover so-called custodial interrogations, which police are required to film. It would not cover questioning in other contexts, including questioning juvenile witnesses.
Without enough committee members present to vote the bill out of committee, House Judiciary Chair Rep. Sean Lynn (D-Dover) walked the bill.
