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- Illinois became the first state to prohibit police from lying to juvenile offenders during questioning.
- Governor JB Pritzker enacted the bill, including three other criminal justice reform bills.
- The legislation builds on previous reforms carried out by former President Obama when he was a senator from Illinois.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker on Friday signed a bill making it illegal for police to lie to minors during questioning.
The state, which was previously known as the “false faith capital of the United States,” according to Project Innocence, is the first in the United States to pass such a law.
“Today is a historic day, reflecting how far Project Innocence’s initial foray into false confession reform came – from the requirement to electronically record interrogations, a fundamental change that records what is happening in the interrogation room, “Rebecca Brown, director of policy at Project Innocence, said.
“This law is a breakthrough in the protection against wrongful convictions of young people and an opportunity to establish interrogation techniques that stem from the search for truth and justice among law enforcement agencies across the country. Brown continued.
Lauren Kaeseberg, legal director of the Illinois Innocence Project, said NPR that “in Illinois alone, there have been 100 wrongful convictions based on false confessions, including 31 involving persons under the age of 18.”
The legislation passed by Pritzker on Friday was sponsored by State Senator Robert Peters, who built on previous reforms sought by former President Barack Obama, who represented the same district as Peters when he was Senator for the State of Illinois. Then State Senator Obama sponsored an Illinois law that required interrogations to be recorded.
“Chicago is the nation’s capital of wrongful convictions, and a disproportionate number of wrongful convictions have been obtained from black youth by police who have been allowed to lie to them during questioning,” Peters said. “It ends now.”
He added, “It is time to restore real security and justice to our communities and end the practices that perpetuate trauma and put the wrong people in jail. “
Similar legislation has been approved by Oregon state lawmakers and is only awaiting Gov. Kate Brown’s signature, and New York lawmakers have introduced a bill banning deceptive interrogation tactics and establishing a judicial review of recorded confessions to determine whether they should be used in court.
It is legal for the police to lie to juvenile offenders, for example by promising them a lenient sentence or by suggesting non-existent evidence to the authorities to elicit a confession.
Pritzker has also signed three other bills aimed at reforming criminal justice, including making restorative justice practices inside information, creating a sentencing task force to analyze ways to reduce the state’s prison population , by allowing a state prosecutor to seek conviction of an offender “if the original sentence no longer advances the interests of justice.”
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