Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

Police Impropriety 515
STEPHEN MILLER
This case relates to a murder of a prostitute, Miss White, in Cardiff on Valentine’s
Day, February 1988. Miss White had been stabbed more than 50 times
at her home, where she entertained her clients. Her head and one breast were
almost severed. Ten months after her murder five men were arrested, having
been implicated by two of Miss White’s colleagues, who claimed to have witnessed
the murder and been forced to participate in mutilating the body. In
spite of a great deal of forensic evidence at the crime scene none of it matched
any of the five defendants (Rose & Bhatti, 1991). In October 1989 the trial
began. The preceding judge was Mr Justice McNeal, who refused to hear my
evidence of Stephen Miller’s psychological vulnerabilities during a voire dire.
The trial before this judge lasted almost six months, but as the judge began
the summing up he died of a heart attack. A re-trial was to commence three
months later.
In August 1989 I had been commissioned by the defence to assess Miller and
study the police interview tapes. My main conclusions were as follows.
� Mr Miller obtained a Full Scale IQ of 75, falling at the bottom 5% of the
general population.
� Mr Miller proved to be abnormally suggestible on the GSS 1 and GSS 2,
administered three weeks apart (the Total Suggestibility Scores were 18
and 20, respectively).
� Mr Miller was prone to symptoms of high anxiety.
� During the interrogation Mr Miller’s self-esteem was severely manipulated
by the officers, he was subjected to immense pressure to provide detailed
accounts that agreed with the police officers’ premises and expectations
and the form and type of questioning was very leading. He showed clear
evidence of distress at various times during the interviews.
In the final paragraph of my psychological report, I concluded:
In view of Mr Miller’s marked psychological vulnerabilities he would have been
ill-prepared at the time of the interviews to cope psychologically with the pressure
and demand characteristics of the situation. There is no doubt in my mind that
bearing in mind the type, intensity and duration of the police pressure during the
interviews and his psychological vulnerabilities, the reliability of the interviews
must be considered to be unsafe and unsatisfactory.
Miller had been interviewed by the police on 19 occasions between 7 and 11
December 1988, comprising 14 hours of tape-recorded interviews over a 90 hour
period. There was a solicitor present during all the interviews, but in spite of
the oppressive nature of the questioning he failed to intervene appropriately.
Miller’s confession was crucial in implicating him and his co-defendants. Therefore,
it was crucial for the Crown that Miller’s interviews were allowed before
the jury.
A second trial commenced in May 1990 under Mr. Justice Leonard, and ended
approximately six months later. I was allowed by this judge to give evidence
during a voire dire on 18 May, which took place at the beginning of the trial. My