Going to the Source: The “New” Reid Method and False Confessions

We cannot expect perfection from the criminal justice system. Inevitably, some innocent people will be punished and many guilty unpunished. We can and must, however, expect a good-faith effort to address systematic flaws which predictably produce injustice. A long and growing literature establishes and seeks to explain the surprising prevalence of false confessions. The question arises: are those in position to ameliorate the problem taking appropriate steps? To some extent, yes. Law enforcement increasingly records the interrogations of felony suspects, and courts increasingly permit expert testimony about interrogations and confessions. Such reforms, however, are too little too late— too little because juries may convict the false confessor even if they see the interrogation and hear the expert testimony, and too late because, even if the jury acquits, great harm will already have occurred. To address the tragedy of false confessions most effectively, we must go to the source—the interrogation methods that all too often produce such confessions in the first place. The leading interrogation manual, setting forth what has come to be known as the “Reid Technique,” turned fifty in 2012. Just four years after its publication in 1962, this manual, published by the firm (Reid and Associates) that conducts the