United States v. Deuman

892 F. Supp. 2d 881, 89 Fed. R. Serv. 524, 2012 WL 4379777, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137587
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Michigan
DecidedSeptember 13, 2012
DocketCase No. 1:11:CR:266
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 892 F. Supp. 2d 881 (United States v. Deuman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Deuman, 892 F. Supp. 2d 881, 89 Fed. R. Serv. 524, 2012 WL 4379777, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137587 (W.D. Mich. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER GRANTING GOVERNMENT’S MOTION TO EXCLUDE TESTIMONY OF DR. RICHARD LEO

GORDON J. QUIST, District Judge.

The Government has moved to exclude the testimony of Defendant’s proffered expert witness, Dr. Richard A. Leo, Ph.D., J.D. The Government argues that Dr. Leo’s testimony fails to meet the requirements of Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Defendant has responded, and the Government has filed a reply. The Court has read the parties’ submissions and held a Daubert hearing on August 29, 2012, during which it heard testimony from Dr. Leo by video conference.

The Court’s decision is based on the parties’ briefs and supporting materials, Dr. Leo’s affidavit, and the evidence that has been admitted thus far at trial. For the following reasons, the Court will grant the Government’s motion and exclude Dr. Leo’s testimony.

I. Background

Defendant has listed Dr. Leo as an expert witness in the field of false statements. Defendant states in his disclosure that:

The defense anticipates that [Dr. Leo] will testify regarding his examination of Mr. Deuman and the alleged statements Mr. Deuman made to government agents and other individuals after his daughter’s death; that he will testify specifically regarding Mr. Deuman’s statements and why such statements could be and/or are false; that he will testify about conditions and/or circumstances that cause people to make false statements; and that he will testify concerning the bases for his opinions. (Def.’s Disclosure of Experts & Discovery at 3~4 (dkt. # 54).) Defendant indicates that he intends to argue at trial that certain incriminating statements he made to law enforcement officers were false. The statements at issue primarily include statements Defendant made during a car trip on August 17, 2011, in the presence of FBI Agents Robert Birdsong and Frederick Berry and Grand Traverse Band Tribal Police Detective [883]*883Richard Campos, as well as statements Defendant made the same day to FBI Agent Bradley Beyer following a polygraph examination. During the Daubert hearing, either defense counsel or Dr. Leo indicated that other statements Defendant made may be at issue.

Dr. Leo holds a J.D. and a Ph.D. and is currently an assistant professor of law at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where he has taught since 2006. Additionally, Dr. Leo taught psychology and criminology at the University of California-Irvine from 1997 to 2006. Dr. Leo received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California-Berkley in sociology and his masters degree from the University of Chicago in sociology. Dr. Leo’s Ph.D., which he obtained from the University of California-Berkley, is in jurisprudence and social policy, which includes specializations in social psychology, criminology, and sociology as they relate to legal institutions and law. Dr. Leo has conducted extensive research on police interrogation, the psychology of interviewing and confessions, false confessions, and erroneous convictions. He has published numerous articles and books, many of which have appeared in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Leo has also taught courses and lectured to law enforcement agencies on false confessions and techniques for obtaining reliable confessions.

Dr. Leo and other social scientists have conducted empirical research showing that most jurors are unfamiliar with police interrogation techniques, the effects of those techniques, and the phenomenon of false confessions. See, e.g., Richard A. Leo & Brittany Liu, What Do Potential Jurors Knoio About Interrogation Techniques and False Confessions?, 27 Behav. Sci. & L. 381 (2009). This research discloses misconceptions, lack of knowledge, and biases concerning interrogation techniques, psychological behaviors, and false confessions. In particular, studies show that jurors are reluctant to believe that an innocent person would falsely confess to a crime because false confessions are counterintuitive.

In a law review article published in 2004, Dr. Leo and Dr. Steven A. Drizin, a professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law, analyzed 125 recent cases determined to be “proven false confessions.” See Steven A. Drizin & Richard A. Leo, The Problem of False Confessions in the Postr-DNA World, 82 N.C. L.Rev. 891 (2004). The authors classified the 125 confessions as “proven false confessions” based on four criteria providing objective confirmation that the confession was false: (1) proof that the crime did not happen, e.g., three developmentally disabled defendants confess to murdering a defendant’s newborn baby but later-obtained evidence shows that such defendant was medically incapable of having a child; (2) the defendant could not have committed the crime, e.g., the defendant was incarcerated at the time the crime was committed; (3) the true perpetrator of the crime, whose guilt can be objectively verified, was subsequently apprehended; and (4) rehable scientific evidence excludes the defendant as the perpetrator, e.g., DNA testing. See id. at 925-26. This study differed from a 1998 study Dr. Leo conducted with Dr. Richard J. Ofshe, see Richard A. Leo & Richard J. Ofshe, The Consequences of False Confessions: Deprivations of Liberty and Miscarriages of Justice in the Age of Psychological Interrogation, 88 J.Crim. L. & Criminology 429 (1998), which classified the studied interrogation-induced confessions as “proven,” “highly probable,” and “probable,” by limiting the studied confessions only to those that could be objectively verified as false. See Drizin & Leo, 82 N.C. L.Rev. at 924-25. Dr. Leo’s research and analysis of false confessions relies principally upon documents such as [884]*884newspaper accounts, court documents, transcripts, police reports, and published appellate opinions.

Dr. Leo also contributed to a consensus document, or “white paper,” published in 2010 by the American Psyehology-Law/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association. See Saul M. Kassin et al., Police-Induced Confessions: Risk Factors and Recommendations, 34 Law & Hum. Behav. 3 (2010). This peer-reviewed article compiled the existing research concerning false confessions and, among other things, identified police interrogation techniques found to lead to false confessions, identified personality characteristics that render individuals particularly susceptible to making false confessions, and concluded with policy recommendations, namely, that law enforcement officers record interrogation sessions.1

Dr. Leo’s research has identified two types of interrogation-induced false confessions: “compliant false confessions,” which occur where the confessor seeks to end police questioning by admitting to guilt; and “persuaded” or “internalized” false confessions, in which the confessor comes to believe that he must have committed the crime. See Richard A. Leo, False Confessions: Causes, Consequences, and Implications, 37 J. Am. Acad. Psychiatry & L. 332, 338-39 (2009).

If permitted to testify as an expert in this case, Dr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Huante
2026 S.D. 6 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2026)
State v. Fana-Ruiz
Superior Court of Delaware, 2019
Shawn Tigue v. Commonwealth of Kentucky
Kentucky Supreme Court, 2018
United States v. Begay
310 F. Supp. 3d 1318 (D. New Mexico, 2018)
People of Michigan v. Ryan Mark Wyngarden
Michigan Court of Appeals, 2015
Walker v. State
194 So. 3d 253 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
892 F. Supp. 2d 881, 89 Fed. R. Serv. 524, 2012 WL 4379777, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137587, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-deuman-miwd-2012.