Richard Ofshe

Richard Ofshe (born in 1941) is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the advisory board of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation advocacy organization, and is known for his expert testimony relating to coercion in small groups, confessions, and interrogations.

False memories
His personal homepage at that institution lists his areas of interest to be coercive social control, social psychology, influence in police interrogation, and influence leading to pseudo-memory in psychotherapy.

Ofshe has been characterized as a "world-renowned expert on influence interrogation". He believes that coerced confessional testimony is extremely unreliable, and stated in a Time Magazine article that "Recovered memory therapy will come to be recognized as the quackery of the 20th century." In a more recent Time Magazine article in 2005, Ofshe is quoted as saying that false testimony does not just occur through coercion, but may also occur in instances of "exhaustion or mental impairment." However, he also stated that it is only recently that juries have been allowed to hear expert testimony about these kinds of theories John E. Reid and Associates has criticized Offshe and provides examples of cases in which Ofshe's expert witness testimony was either rejected, or had less-than positive outcomes at trial. Ofshe has been critiqued for using secondary sources instead of primary ones to promote the theory that more legal miscarriages of justice may exist than actually do.

Education

 * Queens College of the City University of New York, B.A., psychology
 * Queens College of the City University of New York, M.A., sociology
 * Stanford University, Ph.D., sociology, sub-specializing in social psychology

Early career
After completing his studies at Stanford, Ofshe joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley at the level of Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology in 1967. He was promoted to an Associate Professor in 1971 and Professor in 1982.

Honors
Ofshe has received several honors and recognition for his research and writings :
 * John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow, 1973-1974
 * Recipient of Roy Dorcus Award for the Best Paper on Clinical Hypnosis of 1994. Awarded by the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis for "Recovered Memory Therapy and Robust Repression: Influence and Pseudomemories."
 * For work on a series of articles that Ofshe contributed to on the Synanon movement, the newspaper, The Point Reyes Light, received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1979.

Professional memberships

 * American Sociological Association
 * American Psychological Association
 * American Psychological Society
 * Sociological Practice Association
 * Pacific Sociological Association

Warren Jeffs case
Ofshe appeared on CNN in 2006, discussing the Warren Jeffs case. He was asked to answer the question: "..what makes people give up control over their own lives and let a religious -- extreme religious leader like Warren Jeffs dictate essentially everything they do?.."  Ofshe stated that Jeffs simply had to "maintain a belief that was already there", because he had inherited the fundamentalist Mormon group from his father. He stated that: "That gives him an enormous edge over someone who starts a cult group and has to get people to adopt a new ideology. He's already got a big chunk of it in place. And then what he does is build a community, build an organization that maximizes his power and he's done that as well."

Expert testimony
In 2002, Ofshe appeared on the Larry King Live show, discussing the reliability of confessions. In 2005, the Associated Press characterized Ofshe as a "cult expert", when commenting on the murder trial of Marcus Wesson. Ofshe’s testimony in court was found to lack credibility and he was accused by a court of attempting to blatantly coach a defendant and convince him that he was coerced psychologically.

Prosecutors in the case of Tyrone Noling, a man on waiting on death row for the murder of an elderly couple in Atwater Township, Ohio, relied heavily on confession testimony. In 2006, Ofshe asserted that this kind of testimony is not always reliable, and may not be true: "All the confessions should be classified as "untrustworthy" and "unreliable," said social psychologist Richard Ofshe, an expert in false confessions hired by Noling's appellate lawyers to review the men's statements."  Ofshe stated that this was because "coercive interrogation tactics" were utilized by law enforcement to elicit these confessions.
 * Tyrone Noling (2006)

In 1997, a young Navy wife, Michelle Moore-Bosko, was found murdered. Police were convinced that she was murdered and raped by eight men. Five men later confessed, but forensic DNA evidence was only found tying one to the crimes. The four other men who confessed all recanted their testimony but were convicted anyway. Three of the four are currently serving life sentences. Lawyers from the Innocence Project agreed to take the case. The lawyers hired Ofshe as an expert witness in false testimony, and he stated: "Four innocent servicemen are languishing in prison for no reason, other than expediency". In 2009, the men were granted conditional pardons by the Virginia governor, but are still seeking to have their convictions overturned. .
 * "The Norfolk Four" (2005)

In 2005, Ofshe appeared on CBS's 48 Hours, commenting on the Marty Tankleff case. He was helping to work on Tankleff's appeals process. The detectives had obtained a confession statement from Tankleff, but neglected to videotape it. Ofshe asserted that it was a false confession, and that if there had been a videotape, the court would have been able to witness the actual police interrogation methods used. "Ofshe believes that after being badgered for hours, Marty began to question his own memory -- and the police gave him a way out."
 * Marty Tankleff (2005)

In 2001, Judge Lynch "severely limited the testimony of defense expert witness Dr. Richard Ofshe", in the case of alleged murderer Robert Burns Springsteen IV. Springsteen had allegedly been involved in "notorious" murders in 1991. Ofshe asserted that there was the possibility of police coercion utlilized in the testimony confession. Judge Lynch stated that this was a judgement for the jury to make.
 * Robert Burns Springsteen IV (2001)

Ofshe was recruited by the investigators of the Paul Ingram case involving accusations of satanic ritual abuse. Ofshe concluded that Ingram was extremely suggestible, and produced detailed pseudomemories after intense questioning and prayer in which he attempted to visualize himself performing the acts he was accused of. Ofshe published a journal article about the phenomenon, though his conclusions and methods were criticized. Ofshe also testified at Ingram's 1996 pardon hearing. Ofshe gave testimony in the case of the West Memphis 3, three boys tried and convicted for the murders of three children in the Robin Hood Hills area of West Memphis, Arkansas, United States during 1993. Damien Echols - the alleged ringleader - was sentenced to death. Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin were sentenced to life in prison. The case has received considerable attention. Many critics charge that the arrests and convictions were a miscarriage of justice inspired by a misguided moral panic, and that the defendants were wrongfully convicted during a period of intense media scrutiny and so-called "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 90s.
 * Paul Ingram (1996)
 * West Memphis 3 (1993)

During Jessie's trial, Ofshe testified that the brief recording was a "classic example" of police coercion. Ofshe has described Misskelley's statement saying, "[It is] the stupidest fucking confession I've ever seen."

In an affidavit signed on December 28, 1990, Ofshe asserted that "Based on my professional knowledge, on my previous study of the Sikh movement, on documents I have reviewed, and on interviews I have conducted with former members of the movement [I have reached the conclusion that], the Sikh movement in the United States exhibits characteristics common to cult organizations, including the use of intimidation and other forms of coercion to impose control and enforce norms within the group."
 * Ofshe's affidavit asserting that Sikhism is a cult (1990)

DIMPAC task force
After the American Psychological Association's board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology (BSERP) rejected a report presented by the APA taskforce on Deceptive and Indirect Techniques of Persuasion and Control, stating that it lacked the scientific rigor and an evenhanded critical approach for and the imprimatur of the APA, Margaret Singer and Ofshe sued the APA in 1992 for "defamation, frauds, aiding and abetting and conspiracy". The case was dismissed by the court in 1994 on the basis that the claims of defamation, frauds, aiding and abetting and conspiracy constituted a dispute over the application of the First Amendment to a public debate over academic and professional matters; that the parties may be described as the opposing camps in a longstanding debate over certain theories in the field of psychology, and that the plaintiffs could not establish deceit with reference to representations made to other parties in the  lawsuit.

In a further ruling, James R. Lamden ordered Ofshe and Singer to pay $80,000 in attorneys' fees under California's SLAPP suit law, which penalizes those who harass others for exercising their First Amendment rights. At that time, Singer and Ofshe declared their intention to sue Michael Flomenhaft, the lawyer that represented them in the case, for malpractice.

Books

 * Utility and Choice in Social Interaction with co-author Lynne Ofshe
 * Intepersonal Behavior in Small Groups
 * The Light on Synanon - With co-authors David and Kathy Mitchell
 * Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, And Sexual Hysteria, with co-author Ethan Watters
 * Therapy's Delusions: The Myth of the Unconscious and the Exploitation of Today's Walking Worried, with co-author Ethan Watters

Articles

 * “The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation: The Theory and Classification of True and False Confessions.” Studies in Law, Politics and Society, 16, pp. 189–251. Richard Ofshe and Richard Leo. 1997.
 * “The Decision to Confess Falsely: Rational Choice and Irrational Action.” Denver University Law Review. "Symposium: An Interdisciplinary Examination of Coercion, Exploitation and the Law. 74, 4, pp. 979-1122. Richard Ofshe and Richard Leo. 1997.
 * “Defending the Innocent.” The Champion. December. Richard Ofshe. 2007
 * Thought Reform Programs and the Production of Psychiatric Casualties, Psychiatric Annals, 20:4, April 1990, Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D., and Richard Ofshe, Ph.D.
 * Attacks on Peripheral versus Central Elements of Self and the Impact of Thought Reforming Techniques, The Cultic Studies Journal, Vol 3, N°1, 1986, Richard Ofshe, Ph.D. and Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D.
 * Coercive Persuasion and Attitude Change, Encyclopedia of Sociology Volume 1, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, By Richard J. Ofshe, Ph.D.
 * "The Consequences of False Confessions: Deprivations of Liberty and Miscarriages of Justice in the Age of Psychological Interrogation", Journal article by Richard A. Leo, Richard J. Ofshe; Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 88, 1998
 * The Process of Status Evolution, M. Hamit Fisek, Richard Ofshe, Sociometry, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sep., 1970), pp. 327–346
 * The Impact of Behavioral Style and Status Characteristics on Social Influence: A Test of Two Competing Theories, Margaret T. Lee, Richard Ofshe, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Jun., 1981), pp. 73–82