Richard Ofshe is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the advisory board of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation advocacy organization, and is known for his expert testimony relating to coercion in small groups, confessions, and interrogations.
Ofshe has been characterized as a “world-renowned expert on influence interrogation.” He believes that coerced confessional testimony is extremely unreliable, and stated in a Time Magazine article that “Recovered memory therapy will come to be recognized as the quackery of the 20th century.” In a more recent Time Magazine article in 2005, Ofshe is quoted as saying that false testimony does not just occur through coercion, but may also occur in instances of “exhaustion or mental impairment.” However, he also stated that it is only recently that juries have been allowed to hear expert testimony about these kinds of theories.
Offshe has offered expert testimony in countless cases, including many we have profiled: Tyrone Noling, the Norfolk Four, Marty Tankleff, and the West Memphis 3.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ofshe