Suspects threatened with CAS

August 12, 2003 permalink

Most criminal cases today end not with a jury trial, but a confession and guilty plea. The following article from the Toronto Star confirms that the police threaten to take away the children of suspects in order to induce them to confess to a crime. We show only the last six paragraphs of the article.

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Toronto Star

Aug. 10, 2003. 08:33 AM
Why they lie and confess

TRACEY TYLER
LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER

No Canadian jurisdiction requires police to videotape interrogations, but Toronto police generally do it, with the exception of the hold-up squad, said criminal lawyer Andras Shreck. In June, the Ontario Court of Appeal took the force to task for failing to videotape the interrogation of one of Shreck's clients, Keigo Glen White.

The court said that, in the absence of videotaped evidence, the voluntariness of White's alleged confession was suspect and overturned his four convictions for robbing banks.

After being handcuffed and strip-searched, White was taken to an interrogation room, where he was told -- falsely -- that he resembled photos of the bank robber and that if he confessed police would make a deal, the court said.

White said he confessed because police told him if he didn't, his wife would be charged, lose her job and her child would be seized by the Children's Aid Society.

Constable Mike Hayles, a Toronto police spokesperson, said the force policy is to videotape statements "whenever practicable, which means whenever there is equipment or facilities available."

It isn't hold-up squad practice to refuse to videotape interviews, he added. "I'm not saying it hasn't happened the past." But routinely failing to do so would be "unacceptable."