Richard Jason Ofshe (born 27 February 1941) is an American sociologist and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.
[2] He believes that coerced confessional testimony is extremely unreliable and stated in a 1993 Time article that "Recovered memory therapy will come to be recognized as the quackery of the 20th century.
Ofshe joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley at the level of assistant professor in the Department of Sociology in 1967.
In 2005, the Associated Press characterized Ofshe as a "cult expert", when commenting on the murder trial of Marcus Wesson.
[citation needed] Prosecutors in the case of Tyrone Noling, relied on his confession testimony and gained his conviction of the murder of an elderly couple in Atwater Township, Ohio.
They had appeared to exhaust the appeals process in an effort to overturn their convictions based on false confessions elicited through coercion.
In December 2018 they reached settlement with the city of Norfolk and state of Virginia after a civil suit based on their wrongful convictions.
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 deposed that in the course of her many interrogations, Ileana Flores had been hypnotized, so that her testimony against her husband, Frank Fuster, cannot be trusted.
[22] The West Memphis Three were finally released from prison when they submitted an Alford Plea, maintaining their innocence while pleading guilty.
After having to withdraw an amicus brief critical of Margaret Singer and favorable to the Moonies due to member protest, 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,[23] Although Ofshe had nothing to do with the preparation of the report when the American Sociological Association replaced the APA as a supporter of the Moonies Ofshe investigated how this came about and discovered that the ASA's then president authorized the Association's name to be put on an amicus brief without knowledge or approval of the Association's board.
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.
[24] 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.