Wiegert, Fassbender, and Dassey: "Getting to know all about you"

Interrogators like Mark Wiegert and Tom Fassbender have tactics to get suspects to waive their Miranda rights, and they have a different set of ploys to get suspects to tell them what they want to hear—or, in Brendan Dassey’s case, to get him to agree with whatever they, the interrogators, are saying.  (I love it when they get Dassey to agree to something, but then later discover that what they made him agree with doesn’t make any sense after all.  The dynamic duo then gets frustrated with the kid, as if he was the one who gave the bad information to them.)  

But before the interrogation begins, detectives like to warm their suspects up a bit—you know, feign interest in them and build some rapport before getting too hot and heavy.  To see how Wiegert and Fassbender did this, read chapter 10, “Getting to Know All About You,” from my soon-to-be-released book, Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey (Rowman & Littlefield).[1]  Order today for delivery by Halloween; but until then, enjoy a sneak peek of chapter 10, after the jump.  (Reprinted with permission of the publisher; citations to interrogation transcripts omitted for this post.)

Making a Murderer season 2: In defense of the defense lawyers

I’m greatly enjoying Making a Murderer season 2.  As expected, however, it’s a little heavy on the emotional angle—how much footage can we watch of Avery’s mother painfully traipsing through her house?—and a little light on the law, at least for my taste.  But so far it’s quite good, and Kathleen Zellner’s theory of what really happened makes a lot more sense than the state’s theory presented at trial.  Nonetheless, MaM2 is painting an inaccurate picture of the criminal justice system in at least one respect.

The documentary includes some direct and implied criticism of Avery’s trial lawyers, Jerry Buting and Dean Strang.  And this criticism is coupled with action scenes of Dassey’s and Avery’s new attorneys doing all sorts of extraordinary things in their clients’ defense.  For example, Dassey’s appellate lawyer has an entire team around her to simulate oral argument at the Seventh Circuit.  And Avery’s new lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, has a team of paralegals and is shown traveling around the country to consult with experts in a variety of fields; they then conduct several tests, experiments, and recreations of events.

Making a Murderer Season 2

Are you enjoying Making a Murderer season 2 but find it a little high on emotion and light on the law?  Do you want to know more about Miranda rights and the rules of the interrogation room?  Are you curious about the difficulty that Dean Strang and Jerry Buting faced when trying to present a Denny third-party guilt defense at Avery's trial?  

Are you left with more questions than answers about the AEDPA standard that screwed Dassey to the wall?  Do you want to know more about the pretrial ethics rules that governed Ken Kratz's disclosures to the media?  If so, check out my two books, Convicting Avery (Prometheus) and Anatomy of a False Confession (Rowman & Littlefield) to get some answers!