Defending the Interrogation Case: Confession Contamination & Evaluations [webinar]

Presented by: Detective James Trainum (ret.), Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department; and Deja Vishny, Homicide Practice Group Coordinator and Deputy Training Director, Wisconsin State Public Defender

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Presented by: Detective James Trainum (ret.), Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department; and Deja Vishny, Homicide Practice Group Coordinator and Deputy Training Director, Wisconsin State Public Defender

Confession cases are some of the most difficult to defend; juries, judges prosecutors and even some criminal defense lawyers often believe that only guilty people confess to crimes. The Brendan Dassey case, shown in the Netflix Documentary "Making A Murderer" has highlighted the problem of coerced and false confessions. In the webinar we will focus on both suppressing confessions and persuading juries that confessions are false. Deja Vishny will focus on how to litigate motions to suppress due to Miranda violations, involuntariness and lack of reliability. James Trainum will talk about the effect of contamination on statement evidence and how to evaluate a confession for lack of reliability. Both will discuss how to present this testimony to jurors both in cross examining law enforcement interrogators and presenting expert testimony.