How far the police can go in lying to [mostly black] suspects during interrogations? Court Weighs Police Role in Coercing Confessions

NYTimes

New York State’s highest court heard arguments in two murder cases on Tuesday that plumbed the question of how far the police can go in lying to suspects during interrogations — even to the point of telling suspects a dead victim is still alive, but might survive if they confess to precise details of the crime.

The question being considered by the Court of Appeals focused on when a police officer’s lies in an interview room cross a line and become coercion. It is a question that has gained attention in legal circles recently, as more false convictions based on coerced confessions have come to light in high-profile cases like the Central Park Five.

“What is acceptable pressure?” Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman asked Kelly L. Egan, a lawyer representing the Rensselaer County district attorney’s office. “What’s O.K. and what’s not O.K. in terms of deception?”

New York State’s highest court heard arguments in two murder cases on Tuesday that plumbed the question of how far the police can go in lying to suspects during interrogations — even to the point of telling suspects a dead victim is still alive, but might survive if they confess to precise details of the crime.

The question being considered by the Court of Appeals focused on when a police officer’s lies in an interview room cross a line and become coercion. It is a question that has gained attention in legal circles recently, as more false convictions based on coerced confessions have come to light in high-profile cases like the Central Park Five.

“What is acceptable pressure?” Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman asked Kelly L. Egan, a lawyer representing the Rensselaer County district attorney’s office. “What’s O.K. and what’s not O.K. in terms of deception?”

Mr. Lippman was asking about the case of Adrian Thomas, who was convicted in 2009 of murdering his infant son on the strength of a confession he made after detectives in Troy, N.Y., lied to him repeatedly during a long interrogation. Found listless in his crib, the boy, Matthew, was taken a hospital with pneumonia and a severe infection. Doctors also found evidence on X-rays of severe head trauma and told the police of their findings.

Among other things, the Troy detectives told Mr. Thomas repeatedly that the baby’s condition was an accident and that he would not be arrested. Several times they threatened to arrest his wife if he did not confess to abusing the baby, prompting him to say he would “take the rap.” Later they told him his son, who was already brain-dead, might die if he did not help doctors by describing how he hurt the boy.

After two days, Mr. Thomas admitted he had thrown the infant down onto a bed forcefully three times and had hit the baby’s head accidentally against his crib. The boy would soon be declared dead. Convicted at trial of depraved indifference murder, Mr. Thomas is now serving a 25-year-to-life term in prison.

The police in New Rochelle, N.Y., used similar tactics to lure Paul Aveni into making a statement that led to his conviction for criminally negligent homicide in the 2009 death of his girlfriend, Angela Camillo. Though Ms. Camillo had already died of a drug overdose, a detective told Mr. Aveni that doctors were trying to revive her and needed to know what drugs she had taken to keep her alive. Mr. Aveni immediately admitted he had injected her with heroin and had given her Xanax.

An appellate court in Albany upheld Mr. Thomas’s conviction, ruling the tactics the Troy police had employed “were not of the character as to induce a false confession.”

But an appeals panel in Brooklyn reversed Mr. Aveni’s conviction and threw out his statements: The police had implicitly threatened him that “his silence would lead to Camillo’s death, and then he could be charged with her homicide.”

During arguments, several judges — among them Judge Lippman, Robert S. Smith and Eugene F. Pigott — expressed sympathy for Mr. Thomas’s contention that his confession was made under unfair pressure.

But the judges also grilled Mr. Thomas’s lawyer, Jerome K. Frost, over where they should draw the line: The court has ruled in past cases that a police officer may deceive suspects, but only if the final confession is voluntary and the officer’s lies do not create a risk the suspect will also lie about what he did.

“We have precedent that says the police can use deception,” Judge Victoria A. Graffeo said. “What we are trying to figure out is when you enter this area of inappropriate pressure?”