In a rare rejection of a bill recommended by a Senate committee, the Maryland Senate Friday defeated a bill that would have required police investigators to videotape interrogations of murder suspects.
Senators worried about the bill’s impact on casual conversations or questioning between police officers and suspects that takes place outside of interrogation rooms. Under the bill, statements made by a suspect outside of a formal interrogation would be assumed to be involuntary unless the police could prove that a recording device wasn’t available.
Sen. James Robey, D-Howard County, a former Howard County police chief, argued that suspects often admit to crimes at the crime scene without much prodding from the police. Those types of statements are included in the case against the person if the suspect made them abeing told his or her rights.
“I would think you’d be able to protect your investigation,” said Sen. Lisa Gladden, D-Baltimore City, a defense attorney. If a suspect changed his story during a videotaped interrogation, Gladden argued police could protect their earlier investigative work by reminding a suspect during the taping of his previous statements.
– Stephanie Tracy
