RICHMOND, Va. (CN) - A bill banning police from lying to minors narrowly passed Virginia's Senate on Tuesday following intense debate. 

The bill, introduced by Democratic Delegate Jackie Glass, passed the Senate on a 22-18 vote, with one Republican joining the majority. The law would "prohibit officers from knowingly and intentionally making false statements about any material fact, including by use of inauthentic replica documents, prior to or during a custodial interrogation of a child to secure the cooperation, confession or conviction of such child."

"There's something, I think, very wrong, with having a system that we juggle with whether we treat children as children," Glass said in a phone interview. "I think with the advent of the way we surveil ourselves nowadays or track things on each computer, it's just so many tools now that I don't think we need to do that."

On Feb. 4, the House of Delegates passed it on a 51-48 party-line vote. The legislation's Senate sponsor, Majority Leader Scott Surovell, fielded questions from Republican lawmakers who opposed the measure on the Senate floor. 

Proponents argue that police should not use the same interrogation techniques they use on adults on children. 

"Children don't have quite the same brain development as an adult does; they're more susceptible to being influenced, especially by an adult, especially by an adult wearing a uniform," Surovell said on the Senate floor. "You basically can't try to trick kids to get them to confess."

Opponents contend that lying techniques are vital tools to stop crime. State Senator Bryce Reeves, a former narcotics detective, shared a personal story of when he lied to a minor involved with a gang to get access to a firearm the gang had used in recent crimes.

"I had enough to charge that the juvenile delinquent for something else, but instead, I told him a lie so I could get to the gun," the Republican said. "If that solved the issue, I'll do it every day because that took a gun off the street, out of gang members' hands."

State Senator Angelia Williams Graves spoke on the floor to support the bill. Williams Graves said that the lying techniques contribute to the public's distrust of police. 

"We teach our children that the police are supposed to protect and to serve," the Democrat said. "What we do not do is teach our children that they should be expecting to be lied to by the police." 

A typical example used is when law enforcement tells a child during an interrogation that their friend has already confessed or that they have DNA evidence tying the child to the crime. 

"It's unfortunate that somebody would want to take advantage of a child like that," Surovell said. "I know crimes are serious, but there really ought to be a different set of rules when it comes to interrogating children when their liberty interests are at stake and their future record is at stake."

In many states, lawyers are not guaranteed for every child during police interrogation, and most states allow children to waive their right to legal counsel. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, in a study of 268 cases, 34% of minors reported giving a false confession. In a study of nine cases concerning minors under the age of 14, seven reported giving a false confession. In contrast, of the 2,886 adult cases analyzed, only 8% reported giving a false confession. 

Republican state Senator Mark Obenshain spoke on the floor about how the bill's passage could prevent law enforcement from stopping school shootings. 

"Would this bill prevent the police from lying to one of the children about the level of their knowledge in order to obtain that child's cooperation to prevent one of his friends from shooting up a school and killing teachers and students?" Obenshain asked Surovell.

Surovell responded that the bill only limits how police interact with those they are integrating for a crime rather than for their knowledge of another's potential crime. Surovell also mentioned that the only consequence included in the bill is that a confession is inadmissible if it came from a law enforcement officer knowingly lying to a minor.

Obenshain sounded less than assured by Surovell's response.

"I'm here to tell you that that is not how this bill reads," Obenshain said. "This bill does not just apply to efforts to prosecute a child. It does not just provide an opportunity to exclude the evidence. It is a prohibition upon using commonly used police techniques in order to obtain the cooperation of a child." 

A Virginia Association of Commonwealth Attorneys representative spoke in opposition to the bill at a House Courts of Justice subcommittee hearing on Jan. 24. The organization argues that this matter can be better addressed by revising police training. The representative also said that there are enough guard rails in place to prevent police from using involuntarily given confessions in court.

Glass said during the interview that if the guardrails worked, there wouldn't be such a high number of false confessions. This is the farthest the measure has gone in the General Assembly since it was first introduced in 2023. The bill is now going to Virginia's Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, who will either sign or veto it.

Source: Courthouse News Service