Liar Liar: The Fine Line between Deception and Coercion

We have all seen scenes like this one play out on TV shows like Law and Order: a suspect is taken into an interrogation room and a police officer or two tries to elicit a confession from the suspect.  The suspect is uncooperative, so the officers begin to rely on deceptions, lies, and other trickery.  Maybe something like: we found some fingerprints, and we are running them right now, and we know they are going to match, so you might as well confess before that happens and pray that gets you some leniency.  Courts have generally held that confessions obtained because of deception can be used as evidence.  However, on February 20, 2014, the New York Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the deception can only go so far, drawing a line between police tactics that are tolerable and the ones that move into coercive territory.