Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-09-06
Mallory Ruling Hit
By Law Professor
Puts Hondcuffs
On Police, Says
CriminoIogist

The Supreme Courts decision
in the celebrated Mallory
Case" has clamped "tight-fit-
ting handouts" on police in
veStigators and has made new
legislation necessary, a law pro-
feSsor and criminal expert said
today.
Fred E. Inbau, professor Of
law at Northwestern University
and president Of the American
Academy Of Polygraph Ex-
aminers, said the rule which
the Court applied in the NAL
Tory case operates to protect
the guilty as well as the inno-
cent"
The connection Of Andrew
j. Mallory. 22-year-old con-
victed rapist sentenced to
death. was reversed by the
Supreme Court recently on
grounds Washington police had
waited too long to arraign him.
With Mallory's confession thus
made inadmissable as evidence,
further prosecution was dropped
and he went free.
Other Rules on Confession
But the rule applied by the
Supreme Court in the case was
not a necessary one for the
protection Of the innocent"
Prof. Inbau said, since there
already existed well established
rules Of confession admissible
lily to safeguard the rights Of
the innocent.
For many years the courts
have been holding that no con-
fesSion is admissible as evidence
when it has been obtained by
force, or the threat Of force
or by the promise of leniency
or other methods that may
make an innocent man confess.
With its present disciplinary
rule, however. the Supreme
Court says. in effect, it mat
tiers not how guilty the de-
PENDANT may be; it is also inn
material that no promises,
threats or force were used to
get the confession; all that
counts is the fact that the
police delayed in bringing the
defendant in for a formal
charge and preliminary hear.
ing. So wen teach the police q
lesson and turn the defendant
loose"
Prof. Inbau spoke at the
opening session Of the two-day
annual meeting of the Ameri-
can Academy Of Polygraph Exc
aminers at the Washington
Hotel.
Public's Rights Mentioned
He told the lie detector ex-
perts at the meeting:
1T is time for the Supreme
Court to give consideration to
the practical problems con-
fronting the police in their
efforts to protect the lives and
property of law-abiding citi-
zens. The court should concern
itself with the rights of the
public as well as with the rights
Of the individual.
In the area Of police inter-
it should re-estab.
lish the rule it followed prior to
l943 when, in the famous Nc
Nabb case it laid down the rule
re-afflrmed in the Mallory
case); exclude as evidence any
confession which has been OBJ
tanned under circumstances
that are apt to make an inno-
cent man confess, but admit as
evidence any confession that Is
voluntary or trustworthy"
Charging that the Mallory
decision was far too one-sided
and over-weighted. Prof. Inbau
said, sit remains for the execu-
tive branch of the Government
to discipline the police; it Is
not a constitutional function
of the courts"
At the two-day meeting here.
John E. Reid Of Chicago will be
installed as new president Of
the academy. Mr.. Reid directs
a firm of polygraph examiners
with Offices in Chicago. New
York. Pittsburgh and San
Francisco. He has personally
administered about 10000 lie
detector tests.