Analysis of The Core of the American Justice System - Annotated Bibliography Example

In 2002, when the case unraveled after the actual perpetrator confessed to attacking the victim by himself, the public scratched its collective head while trying to understand why not only one but several, of the boys, had apparently falsely confessed to their involvement in the brutal attack on the jogger. A significant part of the answer may be attributable to the court-approved interrogation techniques that police have been using for decades in station houses across the country. Principal among these is the routine deception of suspects about a range of issues which influence a suspects willingness to make an incriminating statement.

In the Central Park jogger case, family members of the five exonerated youths have alleged that the police tricked the boys into believing that they were simply giving statements as witnesses, not as suspects and that once they provided taped interviews, they would be allowed to go home. (5) In addition, the interrogation tactic of leading each boy to believe that others had already confessed and implicated the others was particularly effective. (6) For example, Kharey Wise, one of the exonerated five youths, said he initially told police he knew nothing about the jogger.

But when police told him that his friends had said that he was at the scene, "he started making up facts just to give them what they wanted to hear." (7) Wise said that the police told him he would be able to go home after giving his statement, but instead they took him to jail. In his words, "I fell for it." (8) Other deceptive tactics were also employed. One detective even admitted to falsely telling one of the suspects that his fingerprints would be found on the joggers' shorts. (9) The case of Martin Tankleff presents another high profile example of the pitfalls of police trickery on youthful and other vulnerable suspects.

Tankleff was seventeen years old when his parents were discovered stabbed to death in their Long Island home.