Scholarship Spotlight: Promoting Accuracy in the Use of Confession Evidence: An Argument for Pre-Trial Reliability Assessments to Prevent Wrongful Convictions

Professor Richard Leo

Professor Richard Leo


The all-star team of Richard Leo, Peter Neufeld, Steve Drizin and Andew Taslitz have posted the above-titled article on SSRN.  Download article here.  The abstract states:

This article argues that constitutional criminal procedure rules provide insufficient safeguards against the admissibility of false confession evidence that is the product of police contamination. We propose a specific framework, as well as several possible mechanisms, for courts to review and screen the reliability of confession evidence prior to trial. We also offer specific suggestions for how pre-trial reliability assessments for confession evidence could effectively and efficiently work in practice. Finally, we respond to several possible objections to the idea of pre-trial reliability assessments, underscoring that in a variety of contexts trial judges – consistent with their traditional gatekeeping role — already routinely prevent evidence with sufficient indicia of unreliability from going to the jury.

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