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SADO - Litigating coerced confessions: Using the social science of coerced confessions in suppression arguments, trial strategy, and post-conviction claims


Time: June 11, 2025 - 12-1:30pm
Location: Zoom

Please join SADO's Criminal Defense Resource Center and Wayne County for a lunchtime training on Litigating Coerced Confessions: Using the social science of coerced confessions in suppression arguments, trial strategy, and post-conviction claims, with Lauren Gottesman from the Innocence Project.

This training will provide defense attorneys with new tools with which to litigate their confession cases at the pre-trial, trial, and post-conviction stages. The training will begin with a summary of the most relevant social science on coercive police interrogation and coerced confessions. It will then address strategies for strengthening suppression arguments on voluntariness and Miranda grounds, as well as tips for selecting and working with experts in the pre-trial and trial stages. The training will also discuss how to respond to common arguments opposing expert testimony, and how to navigate some negative Michigan precedent on the issue. Lastly, the training will discuss raising novel postconviction claims -- namely, a newly-discovered evidence claim based on the evolution of the science on confessions and interrogations.


Questions? Contact CDRC at cdrc@sado.org.