Criminal Justice

LaChandra Point

03/23/2013

CJE 2580

Interrogations

Nathan Marcus Gann is a young man suspected of murdering his father. Upon viewing Nathan’s interrogation, I observed an officer telling Nathan that his sister Brae had already spoken every detail of what had taken place. The officer urged Nathan to tell his side of the story and to not let his little sister take the blame. After repeatedly insisting that he didn’t do anything, the officer continued telling him his sister, Brae was going to take the fall and fry because he “wouldn’t be the big brother he was supposed to act like”.

The officer proceeded to the crime, discussing the events that had taken place. After the interrogating officer asked Nathan about how it felt when his father went down and when he made the noises he made, Nathan remarked, saying it was horrifying. He also asked to do a demonstration of what happened; stating that he needed the help of a partner.

After demonstrating the crime, Nathan sat in the chair, seemingly relieved as if a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Following his confession, Nathan also seems to shows signs of regret.

The phase that I quickly identified was that of getting the confession. From the beginning of the video, the officer went directly to obtaining a confession. During this phase, once a claim has been made, no further discussion of innocence can be had. The officer is to use persuasion and urge the suspect to state what happened.

The officer did the right thing by refusing to discuss innocence and using persuasion to get Nathan to tell his side of the story. The problem that I see with this particular interrogation is the fact that it has the likelihood to solicit a false