The Fallacy of Defense Attorney Claims that the Reid Technique Causes False Confessions

In confession cases, the defense attorney and their false confession “expert” will oftentimes claim that the Reid Technique causes false confessions. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While the overwhelming majority of confessions are true and accurate, certainly false confessions can occur. With very few exceptions, false confessions are caused by the investigator engaging in coercive or inappropriate behavior.

J.P. Blair reviewed the first 110 DNA exoneration cases and reported that "This study failed to find a single false confession of a cognitively normal individual that did not also include the use of coercive tactics by the interrogator." Earlier in the article, the author defined coercive tactics as "the use of physical force; denial of food, sleep or the bathroom; explicit threats of punishment; explicit promises of leniency; and extremely lengthy interrogations." [J. Pete Blair, “A Test of the Unusual False Confessions Perspective: Using Cases of Proven False Confessions”. Criminal Law Bulletin (Vol 41, Number 2)]

The review of thousands of false confessions by the courts has found that the primary causes of false confessions are the result of the investigator engaging in such coercive behaviors as

• Physical abuse of the subject

• Threats of physical harm

• Threats of inevitable consequences

• Promises of leniency

• Denial of rights

• False confessions

• Denial of physical needs

• Excessively long interrogations

• Disclosure of crime details

• Failure to properly take into account the subject’s mental limitations and/or psychological disabilities

• Failure to properly modify approaches with socially immature juveniles

• Failure to properly corroborate confession details