Anatomy of a False Confession

The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey

Michael D. Cicchini JD

When Teresa Halbach went missing and was presumed dead, the police targeted Steven Avery for the crime. But Avery’s 16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey told the police that he saw Halbach driving away from Avery’s property the day she supposedly was murdered. This version of events would be devastating to the state’s case if it ever reached Avery’s jury.

The police decided to interrogate young Dassey again. For their next go-around they questioned him four times in 48 hours—each time without an adult present and often without reading him his Miranda rights. During this process, the interrogators not only coerced the learning-disabled child into changing his story, but they also got him to confess to participating in the murder!

Even though Dassey’s so-called confession was contradicted by all of the physical evidence, the jury believed it and found him guilty. Now, more than a decade after the trial, the saga lives on. Although a federal district court reversed Dassey’s conviction, a flip-flopping federal appeals court eventually reversed the reversal. Dassey remains convicted and incarcerated; the Supreme Court of the United States is his last hope.

Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey answers several questions, including: Why did Dassey agree to talk to his interrogators in the first place? Why weren’t they required to read him his Miranda rights? Most significantly, how did the interrogators get Dassey to confess to a crime he did not commit? If Dassey was innocent, where did he get the details for his so-called confession? Why did the jury ignore the physical evidence and convict Dassey of murder? And why did the federal courts reverse Dassey’s conviction, only to reverse their own reversal?

Anatomy of a False Confession takes the reader inside the interrogation room and inside the courtroom to expose the interrogators’ tricks, the prosecutors’ ploys, and the judicial sleight of hand that conspired to put Dassey behind bars—probably for the rest of his life. The book also discusses several ways that the law should be reformed to avoid future injustices.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 248 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼

978-1-5381-1715-6 • Hardback • October 2018 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-5381-1716-3 • eBook • October 2018 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Law / Criminal Procedure, Law / Trial Practice, True Crime / General, True Crime / Murder / General

Anatomy of a False Confession

The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey

Hardback

Summary

When Teresa Halbach went missing and was presumed dead, the police targeted Steven Avery for the crime. But Avery’s 16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey told the police that he saw Halbach driving away from Avery’s property the day she supposedly was murdered. This version of events would be devastating to the state’s case if it ever reached Avery’s jury.

The police decided to interrogate young Dassey again. For their next go-around they questioned him four times in 48 hours—each time without an adult present and often without reading him his Miranda rights. During this process, the interrogators not only coerced the learning-disabled child into changing his story, but they also got him to confess to participating in the murder!

Even though Dassey’s so-called confession was contradicted by all of the physical evidence, the jury believed it and found him guilty. Now, more than a decade after the trial, the saga lives on. Although a federal district court reversed Dassey’s conviction, a flip-flopping federal appeals court eventually reversed the reversal. Dassey remains convicted and incarcerated; the Supreme Court of the United States is his last hope.

Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey answers several questions, including: Why did Dassey agree to talk to his interrogators in the first place? Why weren’t they required to read him his Miranda rights? Most significantly, how did the interrogators get Dassey to confess to a crime he did not commit? If Dassey was innocent, where did he get the details for his so-called confession? Why did the jury ignore the physical evidence and convict Dassey of murder? And why did the federal courts reverse Dassey’s conviction, only to reverse their own reversal?

Anatomy of a False Confession takes the reader inside the interrogation room and inside the courtroom to expose the interrogators’ tricks, the prosecutors’ ploys, and the judicial sleight of hand that conspired to put Dassey behind bars—probably for the rest of his life. The book also discusses several ways that the law should be reformed to avoid future injustices.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 248 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼

978-1-5381-1715-6 • Hardback • October 2018 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-5381-1716-3 • eBook • October 2018 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Law / Criminal Procedure, Law / Trial Practice, True Crime / General, True Crime / Murder / General

Author

Michael D. Cicchini isa criminal defense lawyer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, about two hours south of Manitowoc where Making a Murderer was filmed. In addition to practicing criminal defense, Cicchini has written four books, twenty law review articles, and a monthly column on criminal and constitutional law. His books include Convicting Avery: The Bizarre Laws and Broken System behind “Making a Murderer” (2017) and Tried and Convicted: How Police, Prosecutors, and Judges Destroy Our Constitutional Rights (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012).

Table of Contents

Disclaimers
PART I
FALSE CONFESSION BASICS
1. Brendan Dassey’s Confession
2. From Black Box to Glass House
3. “People Who Are Innocent Don’t Confess”—Do They?
PART II
SETTING THE TABLE
4. Don’t Let Facts Get in the Way
5. Location, Location, Location
6. Miranda to the Rescue?
7. Bypassing Miranda
8. Overcoming Miranda
9. Negating Miranda
10. Getting to Know All About You
PART III
INSIDE THE INTERROGATION ROOM
11. Scared Straight
12. Promises, Promises
13. Wordplay
14. It’s Better to Give Than to Receive
15. Baby Steps
16. “It’s Not Your Fault”
17. Positive Feedback
18. “Would You Like a Sandwich?”
19. Remaining Overconfident
20. Pulling the Rug from Under
PART IV
TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS, AND APPEALS
21. Poisoning the Jury Pool
22. Spit Shining the Evidence
23. A Simple Plan
24. Getting Lucky at Trial
25. Mailing in the Appeal
PART V
MAKING A FEDERAL CASE OF IT
26. Reversal of Fortune
27. The AEDPA: “A Formidable Barrier”
28. Too Close for Comfort
29. Law Is Dead
30. Stare Decisis
31. What If?
PART VI
LEGAL REFORM
32. Reforming Miranda
33. Role-Playing Interrogators
34. False Confession Experts at Trial
35. Bye-Bye Reid?
36. The Dangers of Discourse
PART VII
POSTSCRIPT
37. Calling the Supreme Court
Bibliography
About Michael Cicchini
Also by Michael Cicchini

Reviews

In easy-to-read chapters, Cicchini spells out common methods interrogators use, including lying to a suspect, distorting the meaning of the Miranda warnings, and threats.
— Publishers Weekly

Cicchini has crafted a detailed and insightful review of Dassey’s case. The book provides detail and analysis of these important legal events in ways that appear likely to be illuminating even to fans of Making a Murderer. The connections Cicchini makes between the details of the Dassey case and larger issues in the criminal justice system make this work an important resource for the interested public, as well as for scholars and practitioners in the legal system and related fields.

— Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

Michael Cicchini has written a wonderfully descriptive and insightful book, the definitive account of the interrogations of Brendan Dassey and his coerced, contaminated and (almost certainly) false confessions. Cicchini masterfully describes the tricks of the interrogation trade, how police investigators have adapted to the theoretical Miranda protections and turned them to their advantage, and, more importantly, how and why police interrogation strategies – including some of those advocated by the Chicago firm Reid and Associates – can and sometimes do lead to false confessions from the innocent. Anyone who watched the Netflix series Making a Murderer with rapt fascination will want to read this book.
— Richard A. Leo, author, Police Interrogation and American Justice; Hamill Family Professor of Law and Psychology, University of San Francisco

Anatomy of a False Confession

The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey

Michael D. Cicchini JD

Anatomy of a False Confession

The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey

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