Dealing with false confessions is widely considered one of the most difficult aspects of a criminal case, but it does not have to be. Armed with the right knowledge and strategy, you can successfully identify a false confession and prove to the judge and jury that your client was tricked or coerced into believing that they had committed the crime. Christine Funk will identify the three types of false confessions and teach you how to spot them through client interviews, reviewing interrogation transcripts and recordings, and utilizing experts. Funk will explain the science behind false confessions and will cite many scholarly studies that show how psychological coercion can lead to a false confession. Understanding how false confessions happen is essential to litigating them before and during trial. This presentation will give you the skills and confidence you need to litigate even the trickiest of confession cases.
Speaker: Christine Funk (Washington, DC)
Christine Funk currently serves as General Counsel for the Department of Forensic Sciences. She was formerly a member of the Trial Team in the Office of the Public Defender for the State of Minnesota, where she served since 1994. Christine got her first DNA case in 1995. Not being a scientist by training, she struggled to understand the DNA evidence in that and subsequent cases. Eventually, she managed to translate the scientific language into something she could understand. Since then, she has worked towards making scientific evidence understandable to lawyers and lay people everywhere. Christine is a frequent lecturer on DNA evidence as well as the impact of science on criminal lawyers. She serves on the Technical Working Group for DNA for Defense Attorneys, is a member of the Forensic Laboratory Advisory Board in Minnesota, and is on the Board of the Minnesota Innocence Project. Christine is also an adjunct professor at William Mitchell College of Law, where she teaches Criminal Law, Advanced Trial Advocacy, and Wrongful Convictions.
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