State ex rel. A.W.

Today, the majority ignores a very real threat to the integrity of our criminal justice system — interrogation methods that increase the likelihood of false confessions and wrongful convictions among juveniles. Both social-science studies and common sense suggest that interrogation techniques that may elicit rehable confessions from adults have the high potential to elicit false confessions from children. Indeed, this case is a textbook example of the use of interrogation techniques that have the clear capacity to produce a false confession from a juvenile.

Thirteen-year-old A.W. was subjected…