The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Bill would prohibit intimidation of young criminal suspects
HARTFORD — Lawsuits resulting from police lying to and coercing confessions from criminal suspects has cost Connecticut about $48 million in legal damages after sending seven innocent people to prison, including juveniles, according to state lawmakers and advocates who want to join Illinois, California, Utah, Delaware and Oregon in protecting children from the investigatory tactics.
Police would be prohibited from misleading, intimidating and coercing suspects into making confessions, under legislation that is expected to be the focus of a public hearing Monday.
Supporters of the legislation charge that police use the tactics disproportionately against Black and brown children. State law allows cops to lie to children about evidence and leniency, and deny physical and mental health needs while under questioning.
“We want to get this passed,” said state Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, co-chairman of the legislative Judiciary Committee. “We wanted to get this passed last year. We have to remember that though we’re thinking about the potential of a crime, we’re also talking about children. If you lie to them and tell them you have information, they’re trying to match the fact that something you told them to believe is true, with anything they have to say to get out of that space. And that’s going to lead us to a space where we’re doing things that we should not do.”
Winfield said that the tactics make no one safer. “As a matter of fact, it potentially sends us in the wrong direction,” Winfield said in a news conference. “If we have evidence, we have evidence. If we don’t, we don’t. We don’t need to lie to children. We do not need to scare children into saying things that aren’t true that we find out later, sometimes decades later after these children have spent their time in our criminal justice system.”
“Really, what this bill is about is saying don’t cut a corner up front,” state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, DBridgeport, the other committee co-chairman. “If you cut a corner up front in order to force a confession, it just leads to more litigation down the road. It leads to delaying-out justice actually being served. And oftentimes it delays catching the real perpetrator of a crime because someone was coerced into a confession early on.”
Stafstrom said that last year, during the so-called short session of the General Assembly, the bill won approval in the Senate but failed in the House under the late-session time crunch of business. “Part of it was, last year we were working on trying to get the right language until very late in the session, which was why it didn’t run in the Senate until very late in the session,” Stafstrom said. “We’re starting at a better place this year.”
Connecticut’s highest profile incarcerated people include Bobby Johnson, who was 16 at the time of his wrongful murder conviction in 2006, who won $2.72 million in state compensation; and Richard Lapoint who was exonerated in 2015 after serving 23 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. The state awarded him $13.5 million and Lapoint died in 2020.
Supporters of the bill include the Innocence Project, the ACLU of Connecticut, the office of the Chief Public Defender and the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
Separate legislation with less chance for passage in the committee because of opposition from majority Democrats, is a Republican-backed bill aimed at toughening juvenile justice procedures. It will be included among proposals scheduled for a public hearing on Wednesday. Stafstrom said the proposals, including requirements that juveniles be prosecuted in the jurisdictions in which they would be arrested, have been submitted before, and rejected.
It would order mandatory fingerprinting of children arrested for some alleged crimes; “limit a child’s release to a parent who lacks control over a child;” and require cases of kids at least 15 years of age charged with serious offenses, to be tried as adults.
“These are proposals that have been around for several sessions now, advanced by House Republicans related to juvenile matters,” Stafstrom said in a Friday interview.
“Frankly, most of these are ideas the committee has heard before and rejected because they would not advance public safety or would be overly punitive to juveniles,” Stafstrom said. In recent years, legislation has allowed those under 18 caught in one jurisdiction to face court hearings closer to their homes.
“Now, if a juvenile is charged with committing a crime in Hartford, but they’re from Fairfield, the case would be heard in Bridgeport, not Hartford,” he said. “The reason is access to services. We know that a juvenile will actually attend counseling closer to home that’s required by the court. They are less likely to comply and get services they need if they have to travel a distance.”
Stafstrom noted that in cases of serious crimes, judges already have the discretion to order teens tried as adults. Most recently a 17-year-old is currently being held on $3 million bond and will face charges as an adult in connection with the recent shooting death of a food delivery worker in Bridgeport.
“This proposal would expand the list of for lesser crimes for consideration in adult court,” Stafstrom said. “It’s counter-productive. Following services for juveniles, the rate of recidivism is far lower.”
Stafstrom said that the Judiciary Committee tries to raise bills for hearings on a bipartisan basis and the bill was requested by Republicans. “They are not new ideas and are unlikely to receive support by the committee as a whole,” Stafstrom said. “These are not new ideas and unlikely to approved by the committee as whole.”