Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

552 A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
he made the most damaging confession to the Norfolk detectives. We watched
two video-recorded interviews with a psychiatrist who had interviewed him
at length in 1979 and 1989. We interviewed Giarratano for 12 hours at the
Mecklenburg Correctional Facility. The main purpose of our assessment was
to evaluate the likely reliability of the self-incriminating admissions made by
Giarratano to the police on 6 and 8 February 1979. There were both psychological
and psychiatric aspects to the case, as in the case of Carole Richardson,
which meant that Dr MacKeith and I could fruitfully utilize our complementary
approaches and expertise. Of particular medical importance were the effects of
extensive drug and alcohol abuse on Giarratano’s mental state, as well as probable
depressive symptoms, whilst he was interrogated by the police in February
1979. Giarratano’s psychological strengths and weaknesses were assessed and
these were interpreted with references to the likely reliability of his confessions.
The purpose of our assessment was not to attempt to establish whether
Giarratano had committed the crimes of which he was convicted. All we were
attempting to address was the reliability of his confessions, irrespective of
whether or not he had killed the two women.
The aims of our interview with Giarratano were twofold: first, to interview
him about the circumstances of the confessions, his background and substance
abuse, his relationship with the two victims and his mental state in
1979 and afterwards; second, to assess his present mental state and personality,
which included Giarratano completing a number of psychological tests.
The psychological tests I administered fell into four groups according to their
purpose:
1. tests designed to give a general profile of Giarratano’s personality;
2. tests that focused on his current mental state, including possible anxiety,
depressive, psychotic and phobic symptoms;
3. tests directly relevant to how Giarratano handled questioning and interrogative
pressure;
4. rating scales of how Giarratano perceived himself and the police officers
who interviewed him in 1979. No intellectual assessment was conducted
as this had been carried out in 1986 by an American neuropsychologist. At
that time, Giarratano was found to be of average intellectual ability, but a
detailed neuropsychological assessment revealed certain significant deficits
in mental processing, which were thought to reflect the residual effects of
alcohol and drug abuse, and from head injuries sustained in fights and falls
prior to his arrest.
What were the main findings from the current psychological assessment? They
were as follows. There had been a very marked change in Mr Giarratano’s
emotional and mental functioning since 1979. He now came across as an assertive
and articulate man. He was able to talk freely and openly about his
feelings and thoughts. He showed none of the retarded and expressionless
verbal and non-verbal responses that he did in 1979, which were strikingly
evident from a video-recorded interview with a psychiatrist. His self-esteem appeared
to have improved very markedly and there was no evidence of depressive
symptoms.