"Making a Murderer" subject Brendan Dassey's attorney, Laura Nirider, says that of the many things wrong with the police interrogation of her client, there's one overarching problem.
The attorney presented her assessment of the police interrogations — which led to Dassey's contested confession that he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, murder photographer Teresa Halbach — at the University of St. Thomas School of Law on Monday.
"I believe that Brendan Dassey's confession to rape and murder of Teresa Halbach is false," Nirider told a sold-out audience, according to Fox 9 News in Minneapolis.
Nirider, an expert on false confessions by juveniles, pointed out several aspects of the Calumet County, Wisconsin, police interviews that would contribute to a false confession. But her most striking point was that the officers' tactics should've never been used on her client.
Nirider, who is fighting for Dassey's post-conviction relief, said that the police used adult interrogation techniques on a youth (Dassey was 16 years old at the time of Halbach's death, and his IQ was at the cutoff for intellectual disability), which can result in misreading the signs. Here's more of what she said in her presentation:
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Body language and what it means can differ between kids and adults.
"If you're slouched, that means you're lying," Nirider said, pointing to an instructional chart for adult interrogations and a shot of Dassey slouching in his chair while being interrogated. But there are behavioral differences between children and adults. For example, according to experts, kids are more likely to slouch or break from eye contact — both of which are signs for lying in adults.
Also kids are more affected by their surroundings than adults.
She pointed out that Dassey, who had already undergone three interviews in 48 hours, was placed in a "coercive environment": the corner of a small room.
The methods used to get Dassey to speak about evidence contaminated the interview.
The police presented Dassey with false evidence. The interviewer told Dassey that they had proof of Dassey's participation in the murder. "You were there when she died, and we know that," he said.
The police can also add "contamination" to the interview by telling the suspect information that hadn't been disclosed by him. In this case, the interviewer tried to steer Dassey into saying that Halbach was shot in the head. After several failed attempts, the police interrogator finally said, "All right, I'm just going to come out and ask you. Who shot her in the head?"
Dassey answered that Avery did. But Nirider argues that telling him the information made it impossible to figure out if her client really didn't know about it or did and was lying. We can never know now.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider