How Not to Conduct An Interrogation

by Matt Kelley · 2008-11-19 17:13:00 UTC
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Prosecutors released an interrogation tape yesterday in the much-discussed case of an eight-year-old Arizona boy charged with killing his father and another man. The tape is unpleasant to watch, and it certainly doesn't help the prosecution's case. The boy first says he came home and found his father and a neighbor dead. The questioning gets more pointed and the boy tells police that he shot the two men.

He was never read his rights. Neither a lawyer nor a guardian was present. This kid is eight.

Much of the legal discussion on the web today focused on the interrogation, which indeed was completely inappropriate for a child. But I'm thinking about the comments on the blog preaching to the choir, which asks why the hell we're seeing this tape now:

... the video was released. By the prosecutor's office. And why? Because it's a matter of public record, according to Apache County Attorney Christopher Candelaria, so they were OBLIGATED to release it.

What? No, let me amend that. WTF??? The alleged videotaped confession of an 8 year-old charged with murder in an on-going investigation is a matter of public record? What have we been doing all these years messing with motions for discovery? We didn't need to mess with reciprocal discovery rules. We just needed to be filing open records requests! How could none of us have known that? Did the entire criminal defense bar miss the day in law school when they explained this public records stuff?

Could it be that prosecutors let the video out to the public because they fear it won't be admissible, and wanted to make sure potential jurors in the small county saw it online?

Watch the video for yourself after the jump.

Getting back to the interrogation procedure. Questioning a child like this, without a lawyer or parent, after he found his dad dead, is a surefire way to cook up a false confession. He could be aiming to please, interpreting the disapproving tone from the officers. He could be confused. He could be in shock.

False confessions are real. They're more common when the defendant is a juvenile. I have no idea if this kid is innocent or guilty, but this wasn't the right way to question him, and then prosecutors compounded the error by releasing the tape to the public.

Watch the full video here.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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