In light of video footage that shows a suburban Chicago police officer steering a 15-year-old to confess to a shooting he did not commit, some Illinois lawmakers are pledging to back planned legislation requiring a lawyer for any child being interrogated by police.
The video, released due to a WBEZ open-records lawsuit against the city of Waukegan, shows a 43-minute interrogation in which the teen declined an attorney before making self-incriminating statements about the shooting, which injured a store clerk last year.
The 15-year-old was charged with attempted murder and held in jail until his basketball team proved he was in another town during the shooting.
“The current way we are doing things has failed so much and too often,” said state Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, pointing to a long history of false confessions in Waukegan and other parts of the state. “Those failed practices include making Illinois a wrongful conviction capital.”
But law enforcement groups voiced opposition to requiring a lawyer throughout an interrogation for suspects younger than 18.
“All individuals are entitled to counsel at their request, but requiring it for all [juveniles] would not be something we would be supportive of,” Illinois Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Jim Kaitschuk wrote to WBEZ. “We have to contact parents already and they obviously have that choice.”
‘Coercion’ on video
WBEZ is not naming the teen due to his age but has posted clips of the interrogation and a full transcript online.
The video begins with the 15-year-old shivering, both arms inside his T-shirt. It’s lunchtime, but there’s no food. He tells the lead detective, Sean Aines, he wants to go home.
Aines eventually reads him his Miranda rights, beginning with his right to remain silent, but tells the teen, “I’ll kind of explain a little bit as I go along.”
The detective’s explanations undercut the Miranda warnings, including one telling the suspect about his right to an attorney.
“Just keep in mind, I’m asking you: Do you want to have a lawyer right here in this room right now?” Aines says during the interrogation. “Realistically, a lawyer coming here within the next five to 10 minutes — that’s not going to happen. So, if you want to have a lawyer, that’s cool. But again, this conversation is going to end for right now, OK?”
Steven Drizin, a Northwestern University law professor who reviewed the video for WBEZ, said the implication was that “getting a lawyer is going to lengthen this process, something that [the teen] wants to avoid.”
“You don’t need a lot of coercion to get a kid to falsely confess,” Drizin said.
The detective, proceeding without a lawyer for the 15-year-old, tells him some shooting suspects get to go home after confessing, inflates the evidence against the teen and feeds him key facts about the shooting.
Little by little, the 15-year-old implicates himself.
Elizabeth Clarke, an attorney who founded the Evanston-based nonprofit Juvenile Justice Initiative, said children under interrogation need a lawyer to understand their constitutional rights and the consequences of any statement they might make.
“Children do not have agency,” Clarke said. “Under 18, they’re not even allowed to go on a field trip from school without parental permission.”
Looming legislative battle
Now, Clarke said, the video of the 15-year-old’s false confession is spurring legislative action to mandate an attorney during a police interrogation for anyone younger than 18.
The effort would update an Illinois law that took effect in 2017 and requires a lawyer throughout the interrogation of a child under 15 who is suspected of murder or sexual assault.
But John Millner, a former state senator who lobbies for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said raising the age would make it too hard to solve crimes.
“Eighteen and under, we feel that we don’t want an attorney involved because the attorneys will not let the suspect talk,” Millner said.
If a child is allowed to speak with police, Millner said, the officers can clear the kid’s name right away — for example, if there is an alibi for when the crime occurred.
“This happens, basically, every day in police departments,” Millner said.
But Clarke said the Waukegan interrogation video shows that a lack of a lawyer for the child not only makes a false confession more likely, it can make solving the crime harder.
“If a lawyer had been there, the lawyer could have separately called the parent, ‘This is where the kid was. You got the wrong kid,’” Clarke said.
With the case fresh in their minds, Clarke says she expects lawmakers to introduce a bill requiring an attorney for all suspects under 18 this winter.
State Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan, emailed she is “interested in sponsoring.”
Peters, the senator, said he is, too.
“Wrongful convictions or coercive convictions aren’t doing anything for anyone,” Peters said. “We need to make changes and restore the public’s trust.”
