Wednesday, April 03, 2013  Canales: Record custodial
interrogations  Yesterday I testified on behalf of the Innocence
Project of Texas in support of Rep. Terry Canales' HB 1096
requiring recording of custodial police investigations, which is
one of the outstanding recommendations of the Timothy Cole
Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions the Legislature has not
yet acted upon. Rodney Ellis is carrying the companion bill in
the Senate.  Nationally, false confessions occurred in about 25%
of cases resulting in DNA exonerations. (Notably, causes of
false convictions can overlap: Someone misidentified by an
eyewitness may plea guilty to avoid a harsher sentence or the
death penalty.) While most DNA exonerations involved sexual
assault cases, however, false confessions were particularly
prevalent in murder cases, which account for 75% of false
confessions listed in the National Exoneration Registry.  The
legislation protects both innocent defendants as well as
protecting law enforcement from false accusations. It