Williams, Lou L.

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DePaul Law Review Volume 17 Issue 1 Fall 1967 Article 18 Inbau and Reid: Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, 2nd Edition Lou L. Williams Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review Recommended Citation Lou L. Williams, Inbau and Reid: Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, 2nd Edition, 17 DePaul L. Rev. 260 (1967) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/vol17/iss1/18 This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Law Review by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact digitalservices@depaul.edu. DE PAUL LAW REVIEWOr, as one federal judge put it, if a lawyer is a ham, he will be a ham nomore to national television than he is to an empty courtroom.Crime and Publicity ends with the final theme that a determination by thecourts and law enforcement agencies to protect defendants from potentially pre-judicial news is more important than the exact words of any program. This con-clusion regrettably forces the path to run in only one direction. If we are tosucceed, the press must sincerely join in this determination. Perhaps the startingpoint is for both sides to sit together at the conference table without recriminationand discuss the issues with the same candor that permeates this book.WILLIAM J. MARTIN**Assistant State's Attorney, Cook County, Illinois; Member of the Illinois Bar.J.D., Loyola University. Mr. Martin was the Chief Prosecutor in the much publicizedSpeck trial.Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, 2nd Ed. By FRED E. INBAU AND JOHN E.REID. Baltimore: The Williams & Wilkins Company, 1967. Pp. 224. $8.00.An interrogator's "work is, so to speak, a kind of free-form of art . . ." spokeone of Dostoevsky's characters in Crime and Punishment. Inbau and Reid haveachieved a remarkable degree of success in demonstrating that the art of theinterrogator is subject to systematic, almost mechanical, application.One hundred and one years after the Russian novelist wrote that the criminalhimself morally demands punishment and public penances, the police investigatoris shown how to most effectively accommodate him. One is tempted to ask theauthors whether their theories evolved during their years of experience or whetherthe years of experience merely confirmed for them Dostoevsky's genius in evaluat-ing human nature.In Crime and Punishment we find the suspect being told: "You were very upsetover something. Even now, you seem a bit on the pale side," and, "You can'twrite-the pen drops out of your hand." Inbau advises pointing out to the suspect"pulsations of the carotid artery, excessive activity of the Adam's apple, foot-wiggling, wringing of the hands, and dryness of the mouth."Dostoevsky's inquisitor seems to excuse crime by stating that it is due toenvironment. Inbau advises an interrogator to "sympathize with the subject bytelling him that anyone else under similar conditions or circumstances might havedone the same thing,"' and, "Reduce the subject's guilt feeling by minimizing themoral seriousness of his offense." 2Inbau suggests that it is a sign of guilt (though not conclusive) when a subjecttries to explain away non-existing incriminating evidence which the investigatorhas told him does exist. Dostoevsky has his character state the criminal will tryto admit all the superficial and unavoidable facts; "only he will try to find differentreasons for them . .. ."Inbau explains the use of what he calls "the friendly-unfriendly act" with twointerrogators, one of whom intercedes on behalf of the subject against the un-friendly investigator. Dostoevsky has a similar "Mutt and Jeff" routine operate1 INBAU AND REIn, CRIMInAL INTERROGATION AND CONFESSIONS 38 (2d ed. 1967).2 Id. at 40.[Vol. XVI19671 BOOK REVIEWSwith Ilya Petrovich playing the hard-hearted man and Nikodim Fomich the com-passionate one.The murderer in Crime and Punishment had a strong urge to confess while inthe police station, but the impulse vanished when he was distracted by extraneousconversation. Inbau says, "The principal psychological factor contributing to asuccessful interrogation is privacy."3The first edition of Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, published in 1962prior to the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Escobedo v. Illinois,4explained how to best dissuade a suspect from seeking the assistance of an attorney.The Escobedo decision in 1964 was vague enough so that the advice to talk asuspect out of conferring with a lawyer was not exactly obsolete. It became so onJune 13, 1966, when in Miranda v. Arizona,5 Chief Justice Warren in the majorityopinion castigated the practice and mentioned Inbau and Reid's volume in a dozenfootnotes. Hence, the second edition.For purposes of analysis, it is convenient to consider the three aspects of thebook as follows: (1) Tactics and techniques for interrogation of suspects; (2)general suggestions regarding the interrogation of suspects, witnesses, and otherprospective informants; (3) the law governing confession admissibility.It is the unstated thesis of the second edition of Criminal Interrogation andConfessions that in the search for truth from a suspect, it is neither fair to himnor efficient for an interrogator to rely upon inspiration of the moment to guidehim in his work. Therefore, approximately forty percent of the book's contentis a listing and an explanation of tactics and techniques for the interrogation ofsuspects, and the list runs literally "from A to Z" without the omission of anyintervening letters of the alphabet.Unlike most "how to" texts, this work avoids the use of vague generalities infavor of specific instruction. Each of the authors has more than thirty yearsexperience in interrogating individuals suspected of having committed criminalacts, and an equal period of time conducting post-confession interviews-on atleast one occasion in the suspect's death cell shortly before his execution! To oneinvolved in the practice of criminal law, the effectiveness of the instructions con-tained in this compendium on the elicitation (some might say "extraction") ofthe truth from a criminal suspect is clear. To any lawyer who abhors the thoughtthat a man might be convicted by his own words, the techniques are too effective.The response of a defense attorney might be similar to that of Dean William L.Prosser whose comment concerning a different treatise was, "This book frightensme. It doth harrow up my soul, make my two eyes, like stars, start from theirspheres, and cause my knotted and combined locks to part, and each particularhair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine."'6The rule of thumb suggested by Inbau to guide the interrogator in his question-ing is to constantly ask himself, "Is what I am about to do, or say, apt to makean innocent person confess?" It is the well-taken position of the authors thatnone of the tactics advocated would do so. A section is included on how to avoidbeing misled by a false confession.The general suggestions and techniques advocated for obtaining information3 Id. at 5.4 378 U.S. 478 (1964).5 384 U.S. 436 (1966).6 Prosser, Book Review, 43 CAL. L. REv. 556 (1955).DE PAUL LAW REVIEWfrom witnesses and other prospective informants are possibly more valuable toattorneys than to police officers. It is generally acknowledged by attorneys in-volved in litigation that most cases are won or lost on the basis of facts as theyappear at the trial. Rhetoric and legal skill alone rarely suffice. Unless the triallawyer knows that he will always have a competent and dedicated investigatoravailable to him, he would profit by at least reading through the book.Professor James Thompson of Northwestern University School of Law is creditedin the preface for his suggestions in revisions concerning the law governing criminalinterrogations. Thompson, who represented the State of Illinois in the Escobedocase before the United States Supreme Court, for two years predicted that theCourt would expand its holding and require the warnings which were finallyspelled out in the Miranda decision. One would suspect that it was his influencewhich led the authors to caution officers to give the right-to-counsel warnings inconsent-search situations-even though such has not yet been required by theSupreme Court.Sixty-eight pages are devoted to the law governing confession admissibility. Thepersonal philosophy of at least one of the authors is evident in the tenor of hiscomments and criticism of the logic of the Supreme Court. It is not necessaryto concur with that philosophy to agree that this is the most lucid and succinctsummary of that law currently available.During a private interview, a widely respected United States Court of Appealsjudge stated that he did not feel that it was proper for him to comment concerningthe social value of the police employing the techniques advocated by ProfessorInbau. He did emphasize, however, that after having read the book, it was clearto him that the authors explained as clearly and as thoroughly as possible therights of the suspect and cautioned the officers to respect those rights.What more can be expected, unless it be the complete exclusion of extrajudicialconfessions?Lou L. WILLIAMS** Assistant Professor of Law, DePaul University; Member of the California, Illinois,and Oregon Bars. LL.B., Williamette University, 1960.

Inbau and Reid:  Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, 2nd Edition

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Inbau and Reid: Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, 2nd Edition

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