Innocent Until Proven Guilty: Part 1 - The Preparation

Ever wonder what it’s like behind the scenes of trial preparation for attempted murder?  In this two-part Special Edition of the Truth Be Told podcast, we explore a case from 2014 out of Brooklyn, NY where heroes from FDNY rescued two young children who were trapped inside a burning apartment.  As the flames subsided, the investigation ensued, and police were pointed at a primary suspect for the alleged arson.  Once in custody, the police conducted an interrogation which produced a controversial confession to the incident.  This resulted in the defendant facing multiple charges of attempted murder, assault and arson with the potential of spending life in prison.

However, as the legal team of Adam Heyman, Anna Carlsen and Sarah Siegel learned more about their assigned case – it was not as open and shut as it seemed.  This team of attorneys joined the Truth Be Told podcast to give their perspective on how they reviewed the case, prepared for trial and ultimately represented their client.  The team also brought in Maria Hartwig, PhD, an expert in false confessions and police interrogation techniques to provide her opinion to the court on the reliability of the confession that loomed over their case.  Professor Hartwig also joins the panel to share the research behind false confessions and the common contributors, such as misclassification, coercion and contamination.

 This two-part episode is intended to provide you the insight and perspective from the legal team of the defendant, and understanding how an expert witness is effectively used at trial.  For investigators, this series also provides several takeaways on how to ensure evidence is collected appropriately and can be relied on for further investigation or prosecution.  Our hope is to provide future jurors, investigators, attorneys and anyone involved in the courtroom working group with a new perspective on how our system is built on the foundational premise of “innocent until proven guilty."

Disclaimer: This podcast series does not represent a comprehensive review of the investigation into this case,but rather highlights the perspective of the defense team.  There are no assertions made by the Truth Be Told podcast as to the integrity of the investigation itself or the reliability of the statements provided by involved parties.  We encourage listeners to review all the information and formulate their own opinion relative to the case but with a more enlightened perspective provided by our panel of guests.