Preparing to Testify in Confession Cases (Parts One and Two)

In Part One of this Investigator Tip we will highlight the content of an article written by Attorney Deja Vishny * entitled, Cross Examining Police in False Confession Cases (WISCONSIN DEFENDER Winter/Spring 2008, Volume 16, Issue 1) in which she outlines how a defense attorney should prepare for the cross-examination of the interrogating officers and how to conduct the cross-examination,including the questions to ask and the issues to raise.

In Part Two we will discuss a number of strategies that she offers for attorneys to get potential evidence,including confessions, against their client suppressed . Her book, Suppressing Criminal Evidence, takes the reader through the suppression litigation process, step by step,
from the initial client interview to drafting the motion and the hearing, including the procedures to follow to get their client's confession suppressed.

Part One

Preparing for Cross

In preparing to cross-examine the interrogating officers, it is important to marshal all of the data gathered in the recording, motion hearing, interrogation training records, records of police discipline, your client’s version, and whatever other sources you have to prepare the cross-examination. Having an accurate transcript of the entire interrogation process is an absolute must! It can take an outstanding secretary about eight hours to transcribe one hour of a recording. You cannot rely on simply having your secretary or a court reporter transcribe the tape and plan to review it a few days before trial. You must carefully review the recoding and transcript together to make sure the transcript is as complete and accurate as possible. Since sound quality may be very poor, this may require multiple listening sessions in order to point out corrections to the transcriber, who must then re-listen to the tape with the corrections in order to certify its accuracy.

* Deja Vishny is a criminal defense lawyer who has specialized in
homicide and false confession cases as well as suppression, trial
skills, and providing effective assistance in criminal defense cases.
She is on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College and
served on the Boards of the National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers, National Criminal Defense College, and the Wisconsin State Bar
Criminal Law Section. It is also noted in her resume that she attended
the “Reid School on Interrogation” and has published articles in The
Champion and The Wisconsin Defender on trial practice and
cross-examining police interrogators.