Contact: Rebecca Stewart
Telephone: 513-479-3335
Email: info@saveservices.org
‘We Got Our Man’ Syndrome: Exoneration of Otis Boone Reveals Perils of Victim-Centered Investigations
WASHINGTON / March 25, 2019 – Last week Otis Boone was exonerated of his 2011 conviction for two cellphone robberies. After seven years behind bars, he was found “not guilty” at retrial. The wrongful conviction arose from flawed eyewitness identification procedures and use of a faulty “victim-centered” investigative methods.
The Ethics Code of the International Association of Chiefs of Police requires police detectives to “ascertain what constitutes evidence and shall present such evidence impartially and without malice.”
But “victim-centered” investigations instruct investigators to start with an initial presumption of guilt (1). The Start By Believing program openly tells detectives to “corroborate the victim’s account;” “minimize the risk of contradiction” among witness statements; and in the case of sexual assault investigations, make sure the sexual encounter does “not look like a consensual sexual experience.”
Such biased and dishonest practices represent an egregious form of police misconduct, notes the Center for Prosecutor Integrity (2).
According to Boone’s attorneys, the police detective ignored requests to interview witnesses who could have provided exculpatory information on Boone’s whereabouts at the time of the robberies (3). This highlights an unwillingness to conduct an impartial investigation.
Boone’s attorneys also highlighted that the detective failed to review prior interviews and information that cast doubt on the reliability of the identification procedure. This reveals the investigator failed to conduct a careful and thorough interview, reaching a premature conclusion of which suspect to prosecute, which has been dubbed the “We Got Our Man” syndrome.
Over 150 scholars and legal experts have endorsed an Open Letter calling for the abandonment of victim-centered practices (4). To date, 45 editorials have been published criticizing victim-centered approaches (5). SAVE recently launched an online petition to Stop Sham ‘Start By Believing’ Investigations (6).
In recent years the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded grants worth millions of dollars to promote Start By Believing methods (6).
Links:
- http://www.saveservices.org/camp/sbb/
- http://www.prosecutorintegrity.org/pr/start-by-believing-lawmakers-must-act-swiftly-to-root-out-police-misconduct-and-bias/
- https://abc7ny.com/man-who-served-7-years-for-robbery-found-not-guilty-at-retrial/5205671/
- http://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/VCI-Open-Letter-7.20.18.pdf
- http://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/investigations/
- https://www.change.org/p/congress-stop-sham-start-by-believing-investigations
- https://www.evawintl.org/grants.aspx
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is working for evidence-based solutions to domestic violence and sexual assault: www.saveservices.org