Laura Nirider (née Hepokoski, born October 16, 1981) is an American attorney and legal scholar working as an associate professor of law and the co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at

Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law The Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (formerly known as Northwestern University School of Law from 1891 to 2015) is the law school of Northwestern University, a private research university. The law school is located on the univer ...

. An expert on law relating to

false confessions A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime which the individual did not commit. Although such confessions seem counterintuitive, they can be made voluntarily, perhaps to protect a third party, or induced through coercive interrogatio ...

, Nirider specializes in representing young people who confessed to crimes that it is thought they did not commit, and working to reform the process of

police interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

. Nirider's work gained international visibility following her involvement in several high-profile cases involving juvenile confessions. Her clients have included Brendan Dassey, whose case was profiled on the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

documentary ''

Making a Murderer ''Making a Murderer'' is an American true crime documentary television series written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. The show tells the story of Steven Avery, a man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who served 18 years in priso ...

'', and who is still in prison, and

Damien Echols Damien Wayne Echols (born Michael Wayne Hutchison; December 11, 1974) is an American author who first became known as one of three teenagers, the West Memphis Three, convicted of a triple murder in 1994 despite the lack of physical evidence conne ...

of the

West Memphis Three The West Memphis Three are three freed men convicted as teenagers of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, United States. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley Jr. to life imprisonment plus two 20-year ...

, whose case was profiled on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''Paradise Lost'' and the documentary ''

West of Memphis ''West of Memphis'' is a 2012 New Zealand-American documentary film about the West Memphis Three that was directed and co-written by Amy Berg, and produced by Berg, Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson, and Damien Echols (who is the primary subject o ...

,'' who was freed but still convicted under an

Alford Plea In United States law, an Alford plea, also called a Kennedy plea in West Virginia, an Alford guilty plea, and the Alford doctrine, is a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act a ...

. She also hosts a podcast on false confessions, entitled ''Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions''.

Education

Nirider earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. She then earned a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the

, graduating

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

in 2008.

Career

After a year-long stint at

Sidley Austin Sidley Austin LLP is an American multinational corporation, multinational law firm with approximately 2,300 lawyers in 21 offices worldwide. It was established in 1866 and its headquarters is at One South Dearborn in Chicago's Chicago Loop, Loo ...

as a

litigator A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. Th ...

, she returned to

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

as a clinical

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

in law in 2009, and was promoted to

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

in 2013. Nirider has stated that one of her reasons for entering

juvenile law Juvenile may refer to: In general *Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood * Juvenile (organism) Music * Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), stage name of American rapper Terius Gray *''Juveniles'', a 2020 studio album by the band Kingsw ...

(in particular focusing on false confessions) was her involvement in the Dassey case while Drizin's postgraduate student in 2007. While working briefly in

commercial law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...

Nirider says she continued to contribute to the Dassey case.

Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth

From 2009 to 2019, Nirider was co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, alongside Prof.

Steven Drizin Steven A. Drizin is an American lawyer and academic. He is a Clinical Professor of Law at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, where he has been on the faculty since 1991. At Northwestern, Drizin teaches courses on Wrongf ...

. The clinic was then merged back into the Center of Wrongful Convictions. Becoming legally expert on how children can be coerced into giving a confession for crimes that they did not commit, Nirider often discusses purposeful or inadvertent tactics which can break down or mislead young people. She states that even well-meaning police interrogators can induce a false confession from vulnerable people. Interrogation is often taught with the aim of extracting information from stubborn, hardened, and fully-grown individuals, hence making it unsuitable for use on young people and especially vulnerable young people. The center aims to tackle this issue through teaching upcoming law students, as well as attorneys and judges, and lobbying policy-makers. One such law that Drizin helped to introduce was one requiring juvenile custodial interviews in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

to be videotaped, which was enacted before the 2006 interrogations of Brendan Dassey. Nirider currently teaches law students about false confessions in young people, a course she attended herself when she was a student. She has published extensively on the causes of false confessions, and has been invited to give keynote talks at multitudes of conferences and symposia concerning issues within the justice system and forensic science. Alongside the International Association of Police Chiefs, Nirider and members of the Center have published guidelines on how to effectively interview young people without coercing a false confession. Nirider has been interviewed about the concerning role of

Reid technique The Reid technique is a method of interrogation after investigation and behavior analysis. The system was developed in the United States by John E. Reid in the 1950s. Reid was a polygraph expert and former Chicago police officer. The technique i ...

interrogation being taught to school officials in order to extract confessions from students, highlighting the stark differences in awareness between adult and juvenile individuals. Changes to interrogation techniques, such as a move away from the Reid technique, could benefit both innocent juveniles and adults. Nirider, alongside Drizin, has undertaken tours of the UK and Ireland discussing her work on ''Making a Murderer'' and the science of coerced confessions. She has been interviewed extensively by the media, and also

Innocence Project Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and other forms of post-conviction relief, as well as advocates for criminal justice reform to prevent futur ...

, as a result of publicity from the documentary. In 2017 she and Drizin were jointly awarded the Northwestern Law Alumni Award for Public Service, dedicated to the memory of

Dawn Clark Netsch Dawn Clark Netsch (born Patricia Dawn Clark; September 16, 1926 – March 5, 2013) was an American politician and Northwestern University law professor. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she served in the Ill ...

, in recognition of their work for the CWCY.

Notable cases

Brendan Dassey

Brendan Dassey was featured on ''

''. Nirider featured briefly in the final episode of the first season of the documentary, which propelled her to fame among some fans of the show. She is featured throughout the second series as it chronicles the CWCY's efforts to remove Dassey's confession being confirmed as evidence, the only piece of evidence that links him to the murder of Teresa Halbach. Nirider has been very critical of the methods used to interrogate a vulnerable and "mentally-limited" 16 year-old, as well as of Dassey's pretrial legal representation. Dassey remains behind bars. After the US Supreme Court did not review, Dassey's remaining options were said to be extremely limited unless new evidence were brought forth. A plea for clemency to the Wisconsin governor also failed, in response to which Nirider wrote an impassioned op-ed. Nirider and colleagues repeatedly stated in legal briefs, academic papers and media interviews that Dassey had always said he was at a bonfire on Monday (October 31, 2005), contrary to the record that he adopted the

suggestion Suggestion is the psychological process by which a person guides their own or another person's desired thoughts, feelings, and behaviors by presenting stimuli that may elicit them as reflexes instead of relying on conscious effort. Nineteenth-cent ...

in 2006 when interrogators claimed they knew he was.

Damien Echols

Damien Echols was a member of the

who had been sentenced to death but, after new DNA testing and litigation by various attorneys, he was released in 2011. The Center on Wrongful Convictions, with Nirider as co-counsel, had prepared an

amicus brief An amicus curiae (; ) is an individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an ''amic ...

. Nirider uses the cases of Echols and Dassey both to highlight the potential benefits of media attention to cases of wrongful guilt. Featured briefly in the documentary ''

''.

Dixmoor 5

The

Dixmoor 5 The Dixmoor 5 are five African-American men who, as teenagers in Dixmoor, Illinois, were falsely convicted of the November 1991 rape and murder of 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews. At the time of arrest, the defendants, Robert Taylor, Jonathan Barr, J ...

were a group of men believed to have given false confessions in police interviews. Nirider was co-counsel for three members, and they were exonerated in 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nirider, Laura Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law faculty Wrongful conviction advocacy False confessions University of Chicago alumni Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni American lawyers American women lawyers American women legal scholars American legal scholars Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women academics American women podcasters American crime podcasters