The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice has unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed that state law­mak­ers require elec­tron­ic record­ing of all jail­house inter­ro­ga­tions. The com­mis­sion added that the law should include a pro­vi­sion stat­ing that if an offi­cer fails to record an inter­ro­ga­tion, jurors would be instruct­ed to view the defen­dan­t’s state­ment with cau­tion. Emphasizing that false con­fes­sions have been iden­ti­fied as the sec­ond most fre­quent cause of wrong­ful con­vic­tions, the com­mis­sion’s report also sug­gest­ed that the leg­is­la­ture pro­vide fund­ing to police depart­ments to imple­ment a pol­i­cy of video­tap­ing inter­ro­ga­tions in felony cas­es.

​“Although it may seem sur­pris­ing that fac­tu­al­ly inno­cent per­sons would false­ly con­fess to the com­mis­sion of seri­ous crimes, the research pro­vides ample evi­dence that this phe­nom­e­non occurs with greater fre­quen­cy than wide­ly assumed,” the commission stated. 

In their report, mem­bers of the com­mis­sion not­ed that taped inter­ro­ga­tions could help pre­vent wrong­ful con­vic­tions and could pro­vide con­sid­er­able ben­e­fits to law enforce­ment, includ­ing pro­tec­tion against claims of mis­con­duct. During a June 2006 hear­ing, two wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed men, Christopher Ochoa of Texas and Harold Hall of California, tes­ti­fied before the pan­el and explained that a record­ing of their false con­fes­sions could have pre­vent­ed them from going to prison for crimes they did not com­mit. Both men stat­ed that the record­ings would have allowed the judge and jurors in their cas­es to see the coer­cive tech­niques used against them dur­ing their inter­ro­ga­tions.

The 18-mem­ber California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice is a blue rib­bon pan­el head­ed by for­mer California Attorney General John K. Van de Kamp. Among the com­mis­sion’s mem­bers are California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, three dis­trict attor­neys, a fed­er­al judge, and a Los Angeles County pub­lic defend­er.

(Los Angeles Times, July 26, 2006). See pri­or rec­om­men­da­tions; see Innocence.

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