Support Recording Interrogations to Protect South Dakotans from Wrongful Conviction

In the notorious case of the Exonerated Five in New York City, innocent children broke down and confessed to attacking a jogger in Central Park, after the police lied and said their friends not only confessed but also implicated them in the crime. It isn’t uncommon for judges and juries to believe false confessions, particularly when they are not recorded on video, and this has led to wrongful convictions that can take decades to overturn. 

Recording interrogations helps prevent false confessions and improves investigations. It creates an important safeguard against wrongful convictions by creating transparent, indisputable records of what happened during an interrogation. 30 states, federal law enforcement agencies, and hundreds of individual jurisdictions require the recording of interrogations, but South Dakota still doesn’t require the practice. 

This year, South Dakota’s legislature can make a change by passing a law that would require interrogations to be recorded across the state. With uniform recording requirements, we can help ensure that what happened to the Exonerated Five doesn’t happen to innocent South Dakotans. 

Sign up to support passing legislation to require recording of interrogations in South Dakota. 

This campaign is in partnership with the Great North Innocence Project.