
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


America's prisons house a "staggering number" of convicts who didn't commit the crime but said under duress that they did - so says our guest, lawyer Alan Hirsch, who testifies in trials across the country as one of the leading expert witnesses on false confessions. He took the stand not long ago in the chilling case of teenager Brooke Skylar Richardson, who was pressured by police to say that she'd murdered her baby, who was actually stillborn, and then burned the body; the jury acquitted her after forensic studies showed that the baby had never been burned at all. Alan says one problem is that police learn to lie about evidence and use clever interrogation methods that break down suspects' defenses, whether they're actually guilty or not. Some states are requiring police to film their whole interrogations - a step forward but not a panacea.
By David K. Shipler & Daniel Zwerdling4.7
1212 ratings
America's prisons house a "staggering number" of convicts who didn't commit the crime but said under duress that they did - so says our guest, lawyer Alan Hirsch, who testifies in trials across the country as one of the leading expert witnesses on false confessions. He took the stand not long ago in the chilling case of teenager Brooke Skylar Richardson, who was pressured by police to say that she'd murdered her baby, who was actually stillborn, and then burned the body; the jury acquitted her after forensic studies showed that the baby had never been burned at all. Alan says one problem is that police learn to lie about evidence and use clever interrogation methods that break down suspects' defenses, whether they're actually guilty or not. Some states are requiring police to film their whole interrogations - a step forward but not a panacea.

6,999 Listeners

37,400 Listeners

9,753 Listeners

113,527 Listeners

56,976 Listeners

7,670 Listeners

12,741 Listeners

16,527 Listeners

10,492 Listeners

10,973 Listeners

794 Listeners

4,378 Listeners