Former NYPD detective Jay Salpeter got many suspects to confess to crimes during his nearly 20 years on the police force. Now working as a private investigator and assisting in the fight to free several wrongfully convicted individuals, Salpeter is certain that he never took a false confession while working as a detective. Last weekend, I spoke with Salpeter, who retired from the police force in 1991 and was recently featured on PBS FRONTLINE’s “The Confessions.” He is best known for his role in overturning Marty Tankleff’s conviction and has been active in the case of the West Memphis Three.
You can read the full transcript of my interview here, but I will highlight some of the major points that Salpeter raised in our discussion.
First, we talked about the reaction that many individuals have when they hear about false confessions (my family and friends included) — namely, that they would never falsely confess to a crime. After all, why would you confess to something you didn’t do? Salpeter stresses that until one is put into that situation, he or she does not know what the outcome would be. When individuals are brought in for interrogation, they are removed from their familiar surroundings, have no access to family or friends, and are sometimes forced to endure hours and hours of questioning.
Salpeter does note, however, that individuals who are not familiar with their rights, specifically the right to have an attorney present, are easy targets for false confessions. The responsibility to ask for an attorney belongs to the individual brought in for questioning, not the police department. When asked what piece of advice he would give to an individual walking into an interrogation situation, Salpeter says to politely give your name and date of birth and ask for an attorney. He stresses, “Never, ever be put into a situation where you walk into that [interrogation] room.” He urges the public to become better educated about their rights.
Salpeter is very supportive of the reforms passed in many states and municipalities requiring the recording of full interrogations. He points out that these reforms not only protect the potential targets of a false confession, but also the detectives. If a defendant takes the stand, for example, and falsely testifies that a detective was violent in the interrogation room, the recording can be used to contradict that testimony. Salpeter also believes that another area of reform should focus on holding detectives and prosecutors legally accountable for their actions.
On his work to free the West Memphis Three, Salpeter believes that this could be a landmark death penalty case if Damien Echols, the only defendant to be sentenced to death, is exonerated. In 2007, new forensic evidence indicated that none of the DNA found at the original crime scene matched the DNA of the defendants. On November 4, 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling and granted new hearings for the West Memphis Three defendants.
More information about Salpeter can be found on PBS’s webpage.