If you ask me it sounds insane that the police love to say
that they never lie or commit perjury when they testify in court,
while at the same time the police routinely lie and mislead people
they question outside of the court room in order to get confessions
and solve cases.
In fact the "Nine Step Reid Method" is probably the most commonly used technique used in the world for the police to get confessions and it routinely uses lies and deception to get confessions. In the case "Frazier v. Cupp 394 U.S. 731 (1969)", the Supreme Court said it is OK for the police to lie to suspects to get confessions. Sadly the police lie and commit perjury so often in courts that this form of criminal act committed by the police has had a slang word invented to describe it. That word is "testilying". Frazier v. Cupp 394 U.S. 731 (1969)Frazier v. Cupp, 394 U.S. 731 (1969), was a United States Supreme Court case that affirmed the legality of deceptive interrogation tactics. [Just like the lies and deception that are used in the "9 Step Reid Method", which is probably the most commonly used police technique used in the world to get confessions]Acting on a tip, police picked up and interrogated Martin E. Frazier, a 20-year-old U.S. Marine, about his possible involvement in the murder of Russell Anton Marleau. Frazier, along with his cousin, Jerry Lee Rawls, was seen at a bar with the victim before the murder. During the interrogation, police falsely informed Frazier that Rawls had already confessed and implicated him in the murder. Frazier denied any involvement in the crime, and suggested speaking with an attorney, but police continued to question him. Police elicited a confession, which was used against him at trial. Frazier was convicted of the murder of Russell Anton Marleau. Jerry Lee Rawls pleaded guilty to the same offense. Frazier appealed his conviction to the United States Supreme Court on three main points. The defense argued Frazier was denied his Sixth Amendment right to cross-examine the prosecution's witness, Rawls, because Rawls refused to answer questions after the prosecution referenced elements from his prior statements to police.The Court dismissed the petitioner's arguments and upheld the lower court's conviction on the following grounds. The Court stated the trial judge followed necessary protocol by instructing the jury to disregard the references to Rawls' statements. The Court agreed the prosecution did not emphasize Rawls' statements over other evidence, and the statements alone was not "touted to the jury as a crucial part of the prosecution's case.Later case law has interpreted Frazier v. Cupp as the case permitting police deception during interrogations. The Court stated, The fact that the police misrepresented the statements that Rawls had made is, while relevant, insufficient, in our view, to make this otherwise voluntary confession inadmissible. The language of the ruling did not specifically state which forms of police deception were acceptable, but the ruling provided a precedent for a confession being voluntary even though deceptive tactics were used. |