The events that took place during Kelly’s police interrogation may have been unusual, but the results were predictable. The next time she saw her questioners, they were providing testimony against her in court, albeit false testimony based on a police officer’s erroneous recording of her statement. What can Kelly do to protect her rights?
It is always important to be totally upfront with your criminal defense attorney in situations like these. Everything you say, short of an outline for a plan to commit a future crime, is confidential, so you have nothing to lose when sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly. Also, remember that most everything in criminal law and procedure can be either successfully challenged or entirely undone, and an interrogation is not an exception to this rule.
Issues regarding police interrogations in Chicago usually revolve around three areas.
Disputing the Lineup
In United States v. Wade (1967), Justice William Brennan said that eyewitness testimony was “notoriously unreliable,” and that unreliability is even more present in post-event lineups. Witness recall is very short. WIthin about 20 minutes, memories begin fading, and after about 48 hours, recall is essentially gone. On top of that, lineups are basically multiple choice. Officers normally tell the witness that the perpetrator is in the group and the person, quite naturally, picks out the individual that best fits his or her vague recollection.
The witness’ lack of recall and the inherent bias in lineup procedure is often enough to create reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror, and technically, that is all the defense attorney must do in order to get a not-guilty verdict.
Nevertheless, there is something innately powerful about eyewitness testimony in general and lineups in particular. So, despite their unreliability, lineups often hold considerable sway with the jury.
Evidentiary Chain of Custody Issues in Illinois
Quite commonly, Chicago police interrogators use visual aids. For example, they may take physical evidence from the crime scene and confront the suspect with it.
Every time someone touches such physical evidence, it loses a little of its reliability. Over time, these moments add up. If the investigator failed to follow chain of custody procedures, which is a real possibility in the middle of the night, the reliability is even more of a question mark when the trial rolls around.
Identifying Reasonable Interrogation Procedures in Chicago
In some areas of law, most notably torts and personal injury, reasonableness is an objective standard. What is reasonable for one person is also reasonable in another situation, at least in most cases.
Illinois criminal law is different, especially with regard to interrogation matters. It may be reasonable to keep one person in custody for several hours and barrage that person with questions, but such tactics might be patently unreasonable in other situations. An attorney can both educate the jury about this standard and also point out how the police department’s tactics fell short of this standard.
Of course, most or all of these concerns can be eliminated with a single phone call to an attorney as soon as the questions begin.
Contact Assertive Lawyers
Many police interrogation methods in Chicago are highly suspect. For a confidential consultation with an experienced criminal law attorney in Schaumburg, contact Glasgow & Olsson.
(image courtesy of Daria Nepriakhina)