The Wisconsin Supreme Court on July 7, 2005, adopted an electronic recording requirement in all juvenile interrogation cases. Amicus briefs filed by the UW Law School's Wisconsin Innocence Project and the Northwestern University School of Law's Children and Family Justice Center figured heavily in the decision, contributing much of its language.  Professor Emerita Marygold Melli, representing the UW Law School, co-signed the Northwestern brief.

The case, State of Wisconsin vs. Jerrell, C.J. , was litigated by attorney Eileen Hirsch of the State Public Defender's Office.

Wisconsin now joins Alaska and Minnesota as the third state to require electronic recording by court decision. The decision applies only to juvenile interrogations, because the case before the court was a juvenile case, but the extension of the requirement to adult cases may be a future consequence.

"This is a huge step forward for criminal justice in Wisconsin," said Law School Professor Keith Findley, co-director of the Innocence Project. Findley pointed out the crucial contribution of  Madison appellate defender Eileen Hirsch, who recognized the potential of the case to bring the issue of the need for juvenile recording to the attention of the Court.

The Court reversed two lower court decisions and held that a confession to an armed robbery taken from a juvenile during a five-hour interrogation outside the presence of his parents was involuntary. In conjunction with the decision the Court announced the broadest rule in the country requiring that police make recordings of custodial interrogations of juveniles.

Relying on its supervisory powers over the administration of justice, the court held that all custodial interrogations of juveniles must be electronically recorded where feasible and without exception when questioning occurs at a place of detention. The failure to record such interrogations would render the "unrecorded interrogations and any resultant written confession inadmissible as evidence in court." The landmark opinion is based both on the false confession literature and principles of adolescent development, which make juveniles more susceptible to police pressure than adults.

The opinion can be found on the Web site of the Wisconsin Supreme Court at

www.courts.state.wi.us/sc/opinion/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&seqNo=18921

Submitted by on July 11, 2005

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