Police have started videotaping witnesses’ statements in response to a growing number of recantations.
In recent years, a number of witnesses have impeached the credibility of police investigations via accusations that police pressured them into falsely implicating accused persons.
The courts have found evidence of police misconduct in gathering evidence. In 2009, Senior Supreme Court Justice Jon Isaacs stayed the murder trial of Shawn Saunders-Bruey and Warren Ellis after ruling the evidence had been “tainted by police misconduct.”
A witness, who police claimed tied the men to the murder of Timothy Jansen Henfield in 2000, alleged that the police pressured and tricked her into giving a statement that implicated the men.
She alleged that two senior police officers coerced her into making a statement and she alleged that her signature had been forged on another statement attributed to her.
