Illinois is now the first state to legally ban law enforcement from lying to minors.
On Thursday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed off on Senate Bill 2122 into law, which legally prohibits law enforcement from lying or using deceptive strategies while interrogating people who are under 18.
This move comes after the 7th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals and the Illinois Court of Appeals criticized lying as a tactic “because of the risk it poses in producing false confessions.”
“This bill, I truly believe, could have saved my life,” said Terrill Swift, a man who was convicted in 2011 after submitting a false confession said. “When it was first brought to me, it touched me in that sense that it could have saved my life. But the reality is, I can’t get what I got back. So moving forward, I want to try and help make sure that this doesn’t happen again.” Swift served 15 years in prison following his conviction.
Swift continued: “This happens so much. And there’s something that needs to change. Granted, this bill passing is a great step, but we still have so much work to do. We still have so much work to do because there are so many brothers and sisters still there now wrongfully. And we can all agree that one day in prison wrongfully is too long.”
