Investigation Project of Lawyer in Interrogation Room

In Japan, confessions during suspect’s interrogation still play important roles to criminal trials. If the confession is not made by true perpetrators but by the innocent, miscarriages of justice may arise. In this situation, we finally introduced the mandatory video recording of interrogations by the revision of the Criminal Procedure Act on 24th May 2016. The reform requires police officers and prosecutors to video record interrogations in cases that are subject to lay judge trials or that are investigated by prosecutors without the police, which is limited to the interrogations the accused or the suspect in custody. By this reform, we can monitor a part of interrogations and may prevent suspects making false confession. However, we still have rooms of examination in the videotaped confessions. In this project, therefore, the presence of lawyers during suspect’s interrogation is discussed as another preventive measure of miscarriages of justice and false confessions.

Project members

• YAMADA, Saki (Ritsumeikan-Global Innovation Research Organization, Researcher)