Searching for funding, MPD still not recording interrogations of murder suspects

By , Special to The Daily Memphian Updated: December 21, 2018 5:45 PM CT | Published: December 21, 2018 4:59 PM CT
<p class="p1"><strong>Suffering two bullet wounds to her torso, murder victim Tamara Hodges drove her white 1994 Honda Accord into the parking lot of this Domino&rsquo;s Pizza store on Union Avenue in June 2013, blowing her horn for help and then falling out of her car onto the pavement. Police charged Brandon Taylor, now 28, with first-degree murder. Facing a life sentence, Taylor was set free last month after a jury rejected the first-degree murder charge and instead convicted him of criminally negligent homicide, in part because of doubts raised by detectives' unrecorded interrogation of Taylor.&nbsp;</strong>(Houston Cofield/Daily Memphian)

Suffering two bullet wounds to her torso, murder victim Tamara Hodges drove her white 1994 Honda Accord into the parking lot of this Domino’s Pizza store on Union Avenue in June 2013, blowing her horn for help and then falling out of her car onto the pavement. Police charged Brandon Taylor, now 28, with first-degree murder. Facing a life sentence, Taylor was set free last month after a jury rejected the first-degree murder charge and instead convicted him of criminally negligent homicide, in part because of doubts raised by detectives' unrecorded interrogation of Taylor. (Houston Cofield/Daily Memphian)

Marc Perrusquia
Special to The Daily Memphian

Marc Perrusquia

Marc Perrusquia is the director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis, where graduate students learn investigative and explanatory journalism skills working alongside professionals. He's won numerous state and national awards for government watchdog, social justice and  political reporting. Follow the Institute on Facebook or Twitter @psr_memphis.

As the Memphis Police Department struggles to catch up with a nationwide movement to reform interrogations, its failure to record lets an accused murderer go free.

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Interrogations Memphis Police Department

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