Should Police Lie to Criminal Suspects?

Lying is considered a sin in the eyes of God. Pathological lying, which occurs compulsively and without logical motivation, can have serious consequences. However, what happens when the police feel compelled to lie to a homicide suspect or a suspected serial rapist to elicit a confession or a damaging statement?

Americans are unaware that the law permits police officers to provide false information to suspects during questioning about a crime although the practice of lying is illegal in most developed countries. Nonetheless, police officers and detectives are often justified in lying to suspects during interrogations or interviews. Are you ready for this one? Law enforcement officers are allowed to lie to juveniles even without the presence of their parents.

Police training manuals recommend officers tell suspects lies about the evidence against them such as an accomplice incriminating them or that forensic evidence pointing to their guilt was recovered at the crime scene. Among law enforcement circles the popular theory is: “It takes a liar to catch a liar.”

“We lie to suspects. But you have to be careful,” Retired Houston, Texas Police Department Homicide investigator Rick Moreno said during an interview for this story. Moreno, who has worked on several drug-related Mexico Cartel brutal murders throughout the Houston area affirmed there is a Supreme Court decision that allows officers to lie and use deception to get suspects to confess.

The Supreme Court’s decision in *Frazier v. Cupp* (1969) permits police to use fabricated evidence in court, a ruling that must be challenged and overturned. Despite countless studies and an alarming number of wrongful convictions since then, the Court has failed to address this critical issue. Criminal justice advocates across the nation are rightfully demanding that legislators take immediate action to rectify this serious problem.

The Reid Technique stands as the dominant interrogation method employed by law enforcement in the U.S. The Reid manual explicitly instructs officers to utilize the false evidence tactic, outright declaring it “clearly the most persuasive” method for extracting truthful information. It is time for a reevaluation of these practices to uphold justice and prevent injustices.

Pros and Cons: Thousands of Confessions Came From Guilty Suspects

It is widely acknowledged that deceit is a common tactic used during suspect interrogations in American policing. However, the consequences of accepting these practices and the degree to which the courts are allowing the endless practices are less well understood. On the positive side, highly skilled investigators are sharp and experienced enough to crack a case by obtaining a good and solid confession from a suspect. Tens of thousands of guilty suspects have fallen for the police bait and confessed their roles in terrible crimes, which means not all deceptions by police are bad as long as the right person confesses.

Police routinely employ manipulative tactics to extract confessions, including using deceptive claims about incriminating evidence and falsely telling the person of interest that an eyewitness picked them out of a lineup when such an episode never happened. These methods are not just a last resort; they are key to interrogation practices across the U.S. They are also integral to police manuals, tolerated by the courts, and widely recognized as standard operating procedures.

Advocates in favor of questionable strategies often argue that law enforcement officers face challenging cases and must employ sneaky tactics to uncover the truth. Certainly, deception can be a powerful tool in prompting admissions from perpetrators and cracking criminal cases. However, on occasion, these methods can backfire. While they may offer investigative benefits, the widespread use of deceit has led to repercussions. It not only impacts the individuals wrongly subjected to such techniques but also raises concerns about the overall credibility of the justice system.

A study of police detectives reveals that approximately 1 in 20 innocent suspects provide a false confession during interrogation-an alarming statistic considering law enforcement interrogations. Once a false confession is obtained, it becomes very difficult to disprove in court, even when confronted with contradictory evidence.

Consequently, false confessions can result in wrongful convictions, making this one of the leading causes of injustices in the United States. The Innocence Project revealed that 29 percent of the hundreds of wrongful convictions it has overturned involved false confessions, and in capital cases, this shocking figure rises to 61 percent. State and federal lawmakers must address this critical issue to protect the innocent and ensure justice is rightfully carried out.

Texas

In July 2022, the National Registry of Exonerations reported a whopping 3, 184 exoneration cases nationwide since 1989.

Bloomberg Law reported in February 2022 indicating Texas leads the nation with 395 exonerations involving police misconduct. Not every individual among the reported numbers falsely confessed to crimes, but many pled guilty in drug cases where the alleged drugs were soap or other non-narcotic substances.

It is mind-boggling to consider that an innocent person would confess to a crime they did not commit; however, the reality is that false confessions occur regularly. According to the Innocence Project, 25% of the exonerations they have handled to date involve a false confession.

If we assume that 10% of the two million men and women imprisoned in the United States are innocent, as estimated by the Department of Justice, we can calculate that as many as 50,000 of these convictions may have involved false confessions.

Houston (Harris County,Texas) False Convictions

Prominent criminal defense attorney John T. Floyd writes in his criminal justice blog that “By 2017, Harris County had transitioned from being the “death penalty capital” of the United States to the nation’s “exoneration capital.”

“As far back as modern memory can recall, the policy of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office has been ‘conviction at any cost.’ Additionally, to complement this policy, the city’s police department and the county’s sheriff’s office have targeted the black community and other people of color for crimes they did not commit and police also falsely accused small-time offenders of trumped-up charges. At the same time, prosecutors have been accused of delaying prosecutions to coerce guilty pleas.”

Floyd’s blog mentioned a March 8, 2017, NBC News story that offered various reasons why Harris County had one-quarter of the nation’s record-high 166 exonerations in 2016:

“There are a number of culprits, researchers say: policing that focused enforcement on black and Latino people, faulty field drug tests that identified household items like soap and cat litter as illegal drugs, backlogged crime labs that took months or years to clear cases, and a pretrial detention system that civil rights groups say keeps people behind bars because they can’t pay their bond.”

“It’s the biggest single focal point of exonerations in the country, this past year, and the year before, and the year before that,” says the National Registry of Exonerations Samuel Gross, a University of Michigan law professor.

For example, in Harris County in 2013, Ray Anthony Hicks of Webster, Texas, confessed to passing counterfeit money at a bail bond company. He pled guilty to Judge Nikita Harmon and received 180 days in Harris County jail.

Ray Hicks pled guilty to passing counterfeit money: the Secret Service later said the money wasn’t counterfeit.

Six years later in 2019, the Secret Service informed Webster police that the $100 the teenager possessed was not counterfeit, John Floyd’s blog reported. It was not until August 2021 that the Harris County District Attorney’s Office informed the defendant of the Secret Service finding. It is not known how long that office had been aware of the conclusion.

An appeals court last year denied Hicks’s claim of “Actual Innocence” saying when Hicks confessed to possessing the alleged counterfeit money (which proved later not to be counterfeit) that he had intent to commit a crime. Instead, though, the appellate justices reversed Hicks’s conviction based on his involuntary guilty plea given to Judge Harmon.

It is worth mentioning that in Harris County in Houston, there are many people guilty of committing the worst crimes unimaginable against the public.

Still, false confessions are so damaging that the consequences devastate lives, destroy cases, and keep the real perpetrators of brutal crimes from being brought to justice.

Detectives Speak

“I don’t go into an interview room to question a suspect with the mindset that I am going to lie to someone, especially if I don’t have too much evidence against the person,” Moreno added “because if the suspect catches the officer in a lie the interview is probably over because the suspect knows you are full of crap.”

Moreno recalled how a Sergeant in the Homicide Division began questioning a murder suspect. The Sergeant didn’t know the suspect had a high-level degree in computer science. “The Sergeant told the guy that there was a way to use a computer to scan his eyes and capture the details of the murder he committed.” “The guy looked up,” Moreno recalled with a chuckle, and the suspect said, ‘Oh really.’ Everything went downhill because the computer major knew the officer was lying about the eye technology capturing the moment that he committed murder. Challenging the officer’s bluff the man shrugged and didn’t confess! He went home without charges.

“Police shouldn’t lie because we should be better than the average person, although thugs lie all the time with no conscience even when they are caught in a crime,” said Retired Houston Police Sergeant-Homicide Detective Cecil Mosqueda.

Mosqueda spent 42 years with Houston Police retiring in 2016 after spending 37 years in the Homicide Division. Mosqueda is one of the original officers to work in the prestigious Chicano Squad Homicide Division , a specialized unit created in 1979 in response to a high number of murders among the Latino/Mexican community in Houston.

The anger directed at police trickery has resulted in innocent individuals wrongfully confessing to crimes they did not commit. Tactics employed by law enforcement often include statements such as, “We have surveillance footage of you that night,” “Your shoe prints were found at the crime scene,” “Your cell phone records confirm your presence,” “You failed the polygraph,” “Your DNA was found on the victim,” or “Your friend stated she wasn’t with you, as you claimed.”

Conversely, strategic trickery, combined with a mix of lies and truths, has proven effective in helping police investigators solve a multitude of crimes across the United States and beyond.

Jaime Escalante, a retired homicide investigator from the Houston Police Department, is a prime example of excellence in this field. He collaborated with Cecil Mosqueda on numerous murder cases in the Chicano Squad. Escalante carved out a reputation as a tenacious and outstanding investigator. His blend of rigorous street work, mental toughness, and adept use of informants-coupled with a unique ability to elicit confessions-led to the successful resolution of countless murders involving Colombians, Puerto Ricans, Dominican Republicans, and everyday citizens of Houston who tragically became victims of violence and murder.

Escalante admitted during the interview for this article that officers must know what they’re doing when they exaggerate the truth while questioning suspects. “If we find a pistol at the scene I’d tell the suspect, “Your prints are on the pistol.” The scheme may or may not work.

The former officer said he worked a case where a very elderly security guard was murdered in Houston’s Denver Harbor and had his pistol taken. What led Escalante to the suspects was when he discovered the truck the young men were riding in got stuck in a ditch. “The security guard refused to help them get the truck out of the ditch and this is when the guard was shot and killed.”

While canvassing the neighborhood witnesses described the truck the suspects were in once the truck got jammed in the ditch. People in Denver Harbor told Escalante the truck owner didn’t live far away from where the murder happened.

“People knew the truck owner lived in the neighborhood,” Escalante stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

Confronting the alleged shooter, Escalante recalled telling the youngster, “Dude, that was your truck in the ditch. I know who the other guy was that was with you.”

Attempting to shoot down Escalante’s bluff, the suspect shot back, “Do you have witnesses?” Escalante responded nonchalantly, “There was a camera on the light pole that recorded the murder when it happened, and you were there.

How do you think I tracked you down?” Escalante said in response, staring at the suspect without a trace of expression. The Detective got his man because he confessed to believing a camera was on a light pole and recorded the shooting of the security guard when this never happened. Overall, Escalante said an investigator must corroborate what the suspect said because the suspect could be lying too.”

The (IP) Innocence Project attorneys have battled the front lines of justice to prevent false confessions from leading to a possible wrongful conviction, according to its website. The IP advocates for the right to counsel during interrogations and for mandatory recording of all custodial interrogations which can improve transparency and create a truthful record of what led to a confession.

Most importantly, IP is working to ban the use of police deception in the interrogation of juveniles, allow false confession experts to testify in court, and convince judges to hold pretrial reliability hearings before a confession is admitted.

A Connecticut police sergeant falsely accused an innocent 18-year-old boy, Peter Reilly, of murdering his mother in 1973. Reilly, who had no history of violence, was not implicated by any witnesses or tangible evidence. But the sergeant informed Reilly he failed a polygraph test after hours of questioning and denials. Because of the unexpected outcome, Reilly began to doubt his innocence.

It’s true that “this test is giving me doubts right now,” he told the sergeant. Reilly, who had been duped into thinking he had erased the incident from memory, admitted, “Well, it looks like I did it.” Still later, he admitted to using a razor to slit his mother’s throat. The prosecution found exculpatory material in Reilly’s case file after he had already spent time in prison, therefore the accusations against him were dropped.

Twenty years later, 41-year-old Gary Gauger awoke on the family farm in Illinois to find his parents Morris and Ruth Gauger dead from apparent knife wounds. Gauger was interrogated for 21 hours by police. Officers lied to Gauger and told him they found evidence against him.

“They told me that they found bloody clothes in my bedroom, a bloody knife in my pocket,” Gauger recalled. The officers went further claiming Gauger flunked a polygraph test.

Finally, when police showed Gauger gruesome photos of his parent’s bloody bodies he broke down and confessed although not an iota of evidence that the police said they had was presented in court. Convicted and sentenced to death, Gauger lingered on Illinois death row until a stroke of fortune reversed the conviction.

In 2004, two members of the Wisconsin Outlaws Motorcycle Club identified as Randall E. Miller and James W. Schneider were charged in the double murder of Morris and Ruth Gauger, a horrible crime that Gary Gauger falsely confessed to committing.

This sort of trickery persists unabated even today.

Malthe Thomsen, a 22-year-old Dane, moved to New York City in 2014 to complete a teaching internship at a preschool. He was questioned by a sex crimes detective for hours after an anonymous tip claimed he had touched children inappropriately on surveillance footage. There was no such video available.

After signing a confession, a bewildered Thomsen stepped on camera and remarked, “This morning, I had a rude awakening.” Before the accusations against Thomsen were dropped, he was arrested, charged, vilified in the local press, and transported to Rikers Island. (5 years later, Thomsen passed away from a cardiac clot).

There is no room for doubt in the scientific community about the dangers of the phony evidence trick. Misinformation can influence people’s visual impressions, beliefs, emotions, physiological states, memories, and decisions, according to studies in many different areas of basic psychology. These results are observed not just in youngsters but also in adults. The influence on confessions has been replicated experimentally recently.

False Confessions Usually Happen in This Manner

False Confession. org wrote the following to illustrate how false confessions happen. “A look at the interrogation techniques police are trained to use on suspects helps explain how confessions can be coerced from the innocent as well as the guilty. According to the textbook “Criminal Interrogation and Confession,” which is known as the interrogator’s bible, a successful interrogation begins with isolating the suspect in the proverbial bare interrogation room.”

“The principal psychological factor contributing to a successful interrogation is privacy being alone with the person under investigation … . [I]n his own home, (the suspect) may be confident, indignant, or recalcitrant. He is more keenly aware of his rights and more reluctant to tell of his indiscretions within the walls of his home.” Moreover, his family and other friends could be nearby, their presence lending moral support. On the other hand, at the police station the investigator possess all the advantages inside the interrogation room; an atmosphere that can easily create an aura of intimidation for the suspect/person of interest.

In the article “True Crimes, False Confessions”, false confession expert Professor Saul Kassin of Williams College (with co-author Gisli H. Gudjonsson), takes the reader through the nine-step process devised by the textbook’s author, John E. Reid, showing how, after isolating the suspect, the interrogator:

• confronts the suspect with unwavering assertions of guilt.
• develops ‘themes’ that psychologically justify or excuse the crime.
• interrupts all efforts at denial and defense.
• overcomes the suspect’s factual, moral, and emotional objections.
• ensures that the passive suspect does not withdraw.
• shows sympathy and understanding and urges the suspect to cooperate.
• offers a face-saving alternative construction of the alleged guilty act that gets the suspect to recount the details of his or her crime and converts the latter statement into a full written or oral confession.”

False Confession .org explained further, “These tactics are described by false-confession experts as powerfully coercive behavioral techniques that are proven effective on the innocent as well as the guilty. In “Why Do People Confess to Crimes They Did Not Commit?” Prof. Steven Drizin explains how the tactics yield a confession, true or false. These tactics are designed to destroy the suspect’s confidence that he will emerge from the interrogation without being harmed and to make the suspect think that he is powerless to bring an end to the interrogation unless he confesses.”

“Once the suspect is on the brink of hopelessness, the interrogator engages in tactics designed to persuade the suspect that the benefits of confessing outweigh the costs of continued resistance and denial. Here, the interrogator makes offers to the suspect, ranging from low-end inducements like appeals to the suspect’s conscience (“the truth will set you free”) or religious beliefs (“God will forgive you”) to suggestions that the confession will be treated more favorably by those in the system with the power to determine his fate.”

Anti-Lying Legislation

Illinois and Oregon implemented anti-lying legislation for juvenile detainees in 2021. In 2022, legislatures in California, Utah, and Delaware also passed similar laws. Colorado will introduce a bill in 2023 designed to safeguard juvenile offenders.

Criminal justice advocates said passing anti-lying legislation is headed down the right track. However, other changes are still required. Both Connecticut and New York are planning to introduce legislation to better safeguard adults. Other states are also beginning to investigate the problem. Citizens can only hope that this will serve as a catalyst for reform in interrogation training and practice in the remaining states, the District of Columbia, and the federal law enforcement agencies.

Based on police trickery and lies that led to false confessions in the past it is conceivable to believe at this point that it’s obvious that legislation should be passed making it illegal for police to lie to suspects about evidence. However, these attempts have been received with hostility. The opposition forces claimed that without lying and other forms of deception, many cases would never be solved.

Legislation Hearings

“Juveniles are afforded an extreme amount of protection” (the officer was thinking of Miranda warnings and the presence of a parent, neither of which have proven protective of innocent children, lying or not). In response, another person cracked, “I’m wondering if we should come up with a bill that says it’s illegal to lie to the police.”

According to a third witness, “Public safety has got to be paramount, it’s got to be first.” A former sheriff who is now a state legislator shared this concern, calling the legislation “pro-criminal” and “anti-public safety.”

The former sheriff has a vital point. Robert Norris, a criminologist, and colleagues in 2020 looked at 109 cases of DNA exonerating the wrongdoer. The perpetrators in 94% of these incidents went on to commit 337 other crimes, including multiple murders and rapes, after evading capture and conviction.

Conclusion

Whether an innocent person is exonerated after a wrongful conviction, the results are the same. Lives are shattered. Accused criminal defendants are real flesh and blood persons who have children, spouses, and other loved ones who love them, and no system should deprive citizens of their constitutionally protected liberty. Prioritizing the truth and protecting the innocent is nonetheless important as convicting the guilty.

Honorable Mentions

Sgt. Jim Montero, Jose “Joe Selvera,” Raymond Gonzales, Jose Deleon, Robert Martinez-Gatewood, U.P. Hernandez, and Cecil Mosqueda are the original members of the Houston Police Department’s Homicide ‘Chicano Squad’ Division, which made history as the first Latino/Chicano Police Squad in U.S. Police history.

• Chicano Squad was a special group of bilingual officers formed in 1979 to investigate unsolved homicides in Houston’s Latino community. The squad, as previously mentioned, included founding member Cecil Mosquedo and six additional officers, and later Jaime Escalante was added to the first original officers. HPD Chicano Squad was created after the 1978 Moody Park riot to help build trust between the Hispanic community and law enforcement. Success for the squad led to police departments strengthening diversity, recruiting, and community policing.
• Chicano Squad’s legacyThe Chicano Squad’s legacy continues to be felt in the Houston Police Department, where more Spanish-speaking officers have joined the force. A&E Cable Network aired a two-part worldwide series on September 2, about the life and work of the founding members of the HPD Chicano Homicide Officers. As stated, Jaime Escalante later became a valuable, hard-working, highly skilled investigating officer with the HPD Chicano Squad Homicide Unit in the mid-1980s – during the Colombian Drug Wars on the streets of Houston.
• Escalante extracted confessions from some of the city’s notorious killers, including taking a confession from Edgar Tamayo Arias when other homicide officers failed to sway the Mexican national to do so. Tamayo Arias murdered HPD Officer Guy Gaddis on January 21, 1994. Texas executed the cop killer on January 22, 2014. City of Houston Mayor proclaimed ‘Chicano Squad Day’ on August 20, 2024, to mark the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Chicano Squad. A museum inside the lobby of the HPD building is dedicated to the work of these fine officers.

NewsBlaze Senior Crime Reporter Clarence Walker can be reached at [email protected]