AMERICAN JUSTICE TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION AT OU

NORMAN – “Police Interrogation, False Confessions and American Justice” will be the focus of a free, public presentation set for 12:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, in 123 George Lynn Cross Hall, 770 Van Vleet Oval, on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus.

Richard Leo, associate professor of law at the University of San Francisco School of Law, will be visiting OU in conjunction with the Presidential Dream Course “Psychology and Law” being taught by Scott Gronlund, professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Launched in 2004, the university’s Presidential Dream Course program, sponsored by the Office of the President, allows instructors to bring renowned speakers to campus in an effort to enrich the academic environment for students and the general public.

Leo’s research interests include police interrogation, false confessions, miscarriages of justice, psychology and law, and coercive persuasion. At USF, he teaches courses in criminal law and criminal procedure as well as a wrongful conviction seminar.

The presentation, which is based on the research findings for Leo’s forthcoming book Police Interrogation and American Justice, will include a discussion of the history of American police interrogation, its psychology and practice, and how and why it leads suspects to make confessions. Leo also will discuss the third degree, lie detector and police training manuals, the causes and consequences of police-induced false confessions, and various proposed policy reforms.

According to Leo, the topics of police interrogation and false confessions are important for a number of reasons. First, police interrogation solves more crimes than any other form of investigative police work. Second, in recent years, false confessions have led to many wrongful convictions of innocent individuals.

“Police interrogation arguably solves more crimes than any other form of investigative police work, and yet we know relatively little about how police actually interrogate and get confessions,” Leo said.

“Another reason why it is important is that in recent years hundreds of false confessions, many leading to the wrongful conviction of the innocent, have been discovered,” Leo added.  “If there is no worse error than convicting an innocent person, and if false confessions are one of the leading causes of wrongful conviction, then it is very important that we understand why police interrogation methods sometimes cause innocent people to give false confessions and what the criminal justice system can do to prevent them in the future.”

Over the years, Leo has served as a consultant on numerous criminal and civil cases, and he has testified as an expert witness many times in state, federal and military courts. He regularly lectures to criminal defense attorneys, judges, prosecutors, forensic psychologists and other criminal justice professionals.

Among his many accomplishments, Leo is the recipient of the Ruth Shonle Cavan Award from the American Society of Criminology, the Saleem Shah Career Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association and a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Institute. Throughout his career, Leo has authored or co-authored four books and over 40 articles, book chapters and other publications. He is a member of many professional organizations, including the American Society of Criminology, American Psychology-Law Society, American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, Law and Society Association, American Sociological Association and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

Leo received both his juris doctorate and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1994, master of arts degree in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1989 and associate of business degree in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1985. Prior to teaching at USF, Leo was an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine, and an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

For more information concerning Leo’s visit or accommodations on the basis of disability, contact Gronlund at (405) 325-4553 or sgronlund@ou.edu.