We all expect police to serve and protect. A new state law allows innocent people to be charged with a felony for statements made during a police investigation.
The Lansing case of Kosgar Lado illustrates the risks to justice in the new law.
Kosgar is a 21 year-old refugees from Sudan who was accused of a crime, pressured into making a confession and then found completely innocent.
Police are encouraged to use high-pressure tactics to convince suspects to make incriminating statements and confess to crimes. It's no suprise that during his interrogation Kosgar made many conflicting statements.
During court hearings on the new charges, Kosgar was assessed by a psychiatrist regarding his competence to stand trial. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia,
The police doubted the validity of Kosgar's confession and kept investigating, eventually charging four other men with the crime. One has pled guilty and the others are awaiting trials.
Even though he had gone through a terrible experience, Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunning charged him with “lying to police,” a felony under the new law.
The new law specifically states that it is a crime to “knowingly and willfully” make false statements to police officers in an investigation.
The question is how could anyone believe that a person with paranoid schizophrenia could “knowingly and willfully” lie during a police interrogation?
In July 2012, the ACLU of Michigan warned the Michigan Legislature against the law, pointing to a nonpartisan analysis which found that the proposed law could punish some witnesses yet protect others, even if they gave false statements. This confusion undermines trust between police and their public.
Instead of encouraging the public to cooperate with police, this law discourages anyone from speaking to law enforcement, since words or omissions could send them to jail. Without knowing whether the police are going to protect you or prosecute you, who would risk speaking to the police at all?
What’s not acknowledged by this dangerous law is that false confessions are often not the result of people intentionally misleading police officers, but the consequences of inappropriate police interrogation procedures.
We know that false confessions are common and the basis for many wrongful convictions. In fact, as the New Yorker recently highlighted, police use sophisticated interrogation techniques that studies show encourage false confessions.
After the law was passed, the Michigan Innocence Project advised that “under no circumstances should a prosecutor charge somebody with making a false statement to the police when the statement was extracted in police interrogation, because what we’ve learned, whether the person is mentally ill or not, is that it’s extraordinarily easy for the police to obtain confessions from innocent people.”
As described by James Shonkwiler, the former executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, Kosgar's case is the perfect example of the law’s dangerous applications:
As he spoke, did Lado maliciously or recklessly intend to divert or mislead police away from the truth or “pervert the pursuit of justice?” To the contrary, the facts strongly suggest that he was upset, confused and afraid and did not possess the requisite mens rea, or “guilty mind” required to form criminal intent.
Kosgar's case drew attention from people across the state outraged at such an obvious miscarriage of justice.
Two Lansing area attorneys offered pro bono assistance in Kosgar's case. Community people formed Justice for Kosgar and established a fund to help pay for court fees and mental health re-assessments.
Over 550 people signed a Change.org petition demanding that Prosecutor Dunnings drop the charges. The Lansing State Journal and WLNS TV Channel 6 provided regular and in-depth coverage of the case and Lansing Community College Radio dedicated nearly one full hour program to the story.
After all the attention and hard work by the Justice for Kosgar community, Prosecutor Dunnings ended his crusade against an innocent man.
Kosgar's own words are a cautionary reminder to us all about speaking with law enforcement under the new law. During his interrogation, he mentioned to officers that other people accused of crimes “talk and then... they end up going for something they didn’t do. That’s what I’m saying.”
Justice eventually prevailed for Kosgar. Yet we all remain at risk for aggressive police or prosecutors bolstered by this misguided state law.
Lynne Martinez, Lansing Branch President
Sofia Rahman, Legal Fellow
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