In the 2009 legislative session the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and others urged the legislature to require that custodial interrogations be recorded.  The legislature responded to this simple plea to require the police to create the best evidence of interrogation statements for a jury, a tape recording, in the most serious crimes being prosecuted in this state.

Effective July 1, 2010, law enforcement agencies are required to tape in-custody interrogations in cases involving accusations of Murder or that involve charges subject to Measure 11, Oregon’s draconian “mandatory minimum” sentencing law.

There are limitations in the new rule.  Failure to tape record the interrogation would not lead to the evidence being thrown out of court.  Rather, a trial judge would be required to advise the jury of the requirement that interrogations be taped and advise the jury of the superior reliability of a recording.  The jury could then take the absence of the recording into account when weighing the reliability of the statements made in the interrogation.

There are exceptions for law enforcement for equipment failures, good faith errors by the equipment operator, emergencies that make recording impractical and interrogations where the officer honestly doesn’t know that the case will lead to Murder or Measure 11 charges.

This new law is just common sense.  Law enforcement officers have an equal stake in preserving the best evidence of the circumstances of the interrogation.  If they are following the rules the tape will show that the suspect was not mistreated nor coerced, making it easier to show that the statements were truly voluntary and get them into evidence in court.  More importantly, it will put the best evidence in front of a jury when they are making decisions that involve long prison sentences or, even, life or death.