Category Archives: False confessions

Judge Calculates New York’s Payment for Wrongful Imprisonment: About $5.5 Million

Posted on May 3, 2013 by | 5 Comments

What financial number would you put on the loss of nine years, nine years of freedom exchanged for nine years in prison? What’s the price of family separation, damaged relationships, stress and anxiety? What’s fair compensation for health ramifications and ongoing required treatment? What about lost wages and impaired future earnings? As mentioned on this blog today (here), Nicholas V. Midey Jr., Judge of the New York Court of Claims, ruled on April 4, 2013, that for Daniel Gristwood, 46, a father of five who spent nine years in prison for a crime he did not commit, the appropriate compensation from New York state is $5,485,394.

Directly from Judge Midey’s 22-page ruling: Continue reading →

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Compensation/Exoneree compensation, Editorials/Opinion, False confessions, Life after exoneration, Police conduct (good and bad), Reforming/Improving the system

Tagged

Amanda Knox case spawns new breed of activists

Posted on May 2, 2013 by | 2 Comments

Seattle Weekly tells how the controversial case of Seattle native Amanda Knox opened the eyes of many people for the first time to how justice can go awry. Some of those who rallied to Knox’s defense have moved on to other interests. But others have expanded their advocacy to other cases, such as those highlighted at http://www.injustice-anywhere.org. You can read the story here.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Exonerations, False confessions, Freedom's Heroes

New Scholarship Spotlight: Why Interrogation Contamination Occurs

Posted on April 29, 2013 by | 2 Comments

Professor Richard Leo has posted the above-titled article on SSRN.  Download here.   The abstract states:

The problem of police interrogation contamination (disclosing or leaking of non-public facts) is pervasive in documented false confessions leading to wrongful conviction. The presence of unique and detailed crime facts in a false confession creates the illusion that the defendant volunteered inside information about the crime that “only the true perpetrator could have known,” thus seemingly corroborating a false confession as verifiably true. This article argues that confession contamination occurs because (1) the guilt-presumptive psychology of American police interrogation is designed to trigger and perpetuate confirmation biases that (2) lead investigators – seemingly inadvertently – to provide detailed case information to suspects as part of their pre- and post-admission accusatory interrogation strategies, but (3) has no internal corrective mechanism to catch or reverse investigators’ misclassification errors or their confirmatory interrogation techniques. American investigators presume not only the guilt of the suspects they interrogate, but also their guilty knowledge of the crime facts. Interrogators almost invariably disclose detailed case information to presumed guilty suspects through the use a variety of information-conveying techniques – accusations, attacks on denials, evidence ploys, feigned omniscience, inducements and scenarios. In the pre-admission stage, investigators convey and disclose detailed case information as part of their interrogation strategies to move the suspect from denial to admission, whereas in the post-admission stage, interrogators do so as part of their strategies to elicit a complete and persuasive narrative of his guilt. Interrogation contamination corrupts the truth-seeking process and increases the risk that a false confession will lead to a wrongful conviction. In order to eliminate it, investigators must dispense with the presumption of guilt that currently underlies interrogations, seek to better understand the multiple sources of their misclassification errors, and create internal corrective mechanisms that help them identify the confirmation biases and tendency toward tunnel vision that lie at the heart of American-style police interrogation.

 

→ 2 Comments

Posted in False confessions, Scholarship

Monday’s Quick Clicks…

Posted on April 15, 2013 by | Leave a comment
click
  • Article about torture during interrogations in South Africa, exposed by the Wits Justice Project
  • Some lawmakers in the Florida want to speed up executions
  • How the Retrial Act (which allows old cases to be reopened when new evidence of innocence surfaces) has given hope to the innocent in Thailand
  • In California, walking 600 miles for the innocent
  • Connecticut Innocence Project gets new director
  • The Mississippi Supreme Court has thrown out the testimony of the prolific and controversial medical examiner Steven Hayne and ordered a new trial for convicted murderer David Parvin in a unanimous decision. It’s the second time in 20 years that the court has found problems with Hayne’s testimony in a murder case and may foreshadow things to come.
  • Editorial on the need to compensate exonerees in the state of Washington
  • Dallas DA Watkins discusses freeing the wrongfully convicted

  • This month marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions this country’s criminal justice system has ever known – Gideon V. Wainwright. The case, along with later decisions, cemented the 6th amendment right to counsel for anyone, regardless if they have the ability to pay.But in a quick scan of the media today of monthly magazines to news dailies on the topic, readers will find one unified reflection expressed — half a century after Gideon, we are far from realizing effective representation for all.  Keep reading here…

  • Exoneree and football player Brian Banks talks about signing with the Atlanta Falcons
  • Details on Innocence Project New Orleans’ upcoming 12th annual gala

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Asia, Compensation/Exoneree compensation, Defense lawyering (good and bad), Editorials/Opinion, False confessions, Junk science, Life after exoneration

Conservative columnist says ‘Central Park Five’ film raises serious questions

Posted on April 13, 2013 by | 2 Comments

The documentary by Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns about the wrongful convictions of ”The Central Park Five” received high praise today from what some might consider an unlikely source — conservative columnist George F. Will.

As a critic of the overreach of government, though, Will has expressed concern in the past about the abuse of power by police, prosecutors and the courts. And he says what happened to the five innocent young men in the media-fueled hysteria created in the aftermath of a horrific rape and assault of a young woman in 1989 is a cautionary tale of government excess that should give conservatives pause.

”A society’s justice system can improve as a result of lurches into officially administered injustice,” Will writes. ”The dialectic of injustice, then revulsion, then reform often requires the presentation of sympathetic victims to a large audience, which ‘The Central Park Five’ does.”

Will goes on to say that ”this recounting of a multifaceted but, fortunately, not fatal failure of the criminal justice system buttresses the conservative case against the death penalty: Its finality leaves no room for rectifying mistakes, but it is a government program, so . . .”

You can read Will’s eloquent column here.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Capital punishment, Exonerations, False confessions, Inquisitional and adversarial systems of justice, Police conduct (good and bad), Uncategorized

David Bryant Freed After 4 Decades, Based Upon IAC Claim (Ineffective Assistance of Counsel)

Posted on April 12, 2013 by | 2 Comments

The NY Times article follows:

By: Marc Santora             Published: April 11, 2013

Karen Smith was 8 when she was raped, beaten, stabbed and left for dead in the stairwell of a Bronx apartment house in 1975.  Even in a city that was rife with crime and inured to violence, it was a horrific scene — the body of the little girl was found wearing only socks and underwear, a Nestle’s candy bar by her side and blood spattered four feet high on the wall.

Within a day, the police announced that they had apprehended a suspect, an 18-year-old neighbor named David Bryant who had a previous history of trouble with the law, including two arrests for sexual misconduct.

Mr. Bryant confessed to the murder, was convicted, and the case was largely forgotten.

But on Thursday, nearly 40 years later, a Bronx judge vacated the conviction and ordered Mr. Bryant released after finding that his lawyer at the time had provided a poor defense.

Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Defense lawyering (good and bad), Exonerations, False confessions

Update on Knoops Innocence Project….the Netherlands…

Posted on April 10, 2013 by | 2 Comments

knoopslogoHere is an update on a new case of interest handled by the Knoops Innocence Project in the Netherlands:

Knoops’ lawyers request re-opening in the case of the “Hilversum showbiz murder”

A Knoops’ lawyers defense team acting on behalf of Martien Meijer-Hunnik requested the Supreme Court to open the case of the “Hilversum showbiz murder.”

Mr. Hunnik was convicted by the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam for manslaughter on Bart van de Laar, a producer from Hilversum, the Netherlands, on November 10, 1981.

The conviction was mainly based on the “confession” of Mr. Hunnik on November 17, 1983. At that time, there was no other direct evidence linking Mr. Hunnik to the crime. Mr. Hunnik withdrew his confession on April 14, 1983, but the judicial authorities did not give credibility to his withdrawal.  A clear motive for the manslaughter was lacking. From 2002 onwards, after he had been detained from 1983 to 1990, Mr. Hunnik tried to obtain his case file, however, to no avail. In 2011 he requested Knoops’ lawyers to investigate his case regarding a revision procedure.

A specialized team of Knoops’ lawyers conducted their own research into the case (2011-2013). Early 2013 the team took notice of “new” material. It turned out that this material was already known to the public prosecution service since 2002 and had resulted in a 2004-police analysis that exculpated Mr. Hunnik.

All these new facts justify the conclusion that Mr. Hunnik was wrongfully convicted in 1984 for the murder on producer Bart van de Laar. The new material shows that Mr. Hunnik is factually innocent to the manslaughter he was convicted for. Also, a not previously known police analysis concludes that it is unlikely that Mr. Hunnik shot Mr. Van de Laar on Tuesday November 10, 1981.

The request to review this case is based on six new facts that are outlined in new pieces of evidence proving that Mr. Hunnik cannot have committed the crime in question. The new material includes a convincing alibi, a new time reconstruction of the events, evidence indicating that his confession was false and a new witness statement.

The defense has urged the Attorney-General of the Dutch Supreme Court to decide speedily on the review request, since the prosecution – as has been shown – was already in the possession of the exculpatory material since 2002.

Mr. Hunnik prays that his conviction will be overturned and that he will be rehabilitated, since he is severely damaged, both mentally and physically, through his conviction by the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam. It had and continues to have a great impact on his personal and family life.

The defense and Mr. Hunnik are – despite the fact that (new) exculpatory material was already known to the judicial authorities since 2002 – very grateful for the efforts made by Mr. Van Straelen, the chief Attorney General of the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam, to reconstruct the course of events and to establish the truth in this case.

Defense counsel: Mr. Geert-Jan Knoops, Ms. Lizette Vosman, Ms. Carry Knoops-Hamburger

→ 2 Comments

Posted in False confessions, Inquisitional and adversarial systems of justice, Police conduct (good and bad), Prosecutorial conduct (good and bad), Western Europe

Settlement Costs from Wrongful Convictions: $250+ Million and Climbing in Illinois

Posted on April 9, 2013 by | 4 Comments

In 2011 the Better Government Association in Illinois reported that wrongful convictions had cost taxpayers $214 million in settlements. An update (here) indicates that, since the 2011 investigation—which was done with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law—government agencies have agreed to pay another nearly $39 million to settle lawsuits resulting from persons wrongfully convicted, primarily of murder and other serious felonies.  And according to an ABC7 report (here), at least ten cases are currently pending in Illinois courts, which could soon move the cost of wrongful convictions to $300 million or more in the state of Illinois alone.

Of course, the settlement costs do not include the cost of incarcerating 85 innocent people for a total of 926 years since 1989, nor the human costs of wrongful incarceration, nor the costs of crimes committed by the real perpetrators who escaped apprehension while innocent persons languished in prison. Continue reading →

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Compensation/Exoneree compensation, Editorials/Opinion, False confessions, North America, Police conduct (good and bad), Reforming/Improving the system

Wednesday’s Quick Clicks…

Posted on March 27, 2013 by | Leave a comment
click

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Compensation/Exoneree compensation, False confessions, Life after exoneration

More Detail on the David Ranta Exoneration

Posted on March 22, 2013 by | 9 Comments

This is, sadly, all too typical.  False eyewitness identification, bogus lineup, jailhouse snitch, police tunnel vision.

Read the full CNN story here.  Below are some excerpts:

Since Ranta’s trial, another man’s widow has identified her now-dead husband as the killer; a onetime jail inmate has said he made up statements about Ranta to boost his own fortunes; and the man who, as a boy, picked him out of a lineup has come forward to say he was coached by a detective.

Menachem Lieberman was 13 years old when he identified Ranta in a lineup.  In 2011, he told investigators that he identified Ranta after being told by a detective to “Pick the guy with the big nose.”

Ranta’s attorney: “The detective work that was done on this case was at best shoddy and at worst criminal. And I don’t use that word lightly,” he told CNN. “But when a closer examination is done of the detective work … It becomes clear that there were so many leads that weren’t followed, there were so many notes that weren’t taken and just a general lack of attention to an investigation that required nothing but close scrutiny of the scene, of witnesses and so forth. That didn’t happen.”

→ 9 Comments

Posted in Exonerations, Eyewitness identification, False confessions, Police conduct (good and bad), Reforming/Improving the system

David Ranta Freed After More Than 2 Decades in Prison

Posted on March 21, 2013 by | 4 Comments

Ranta

New York (CNN) — A New York man has been freed after serving more than two decades in prison for the killing of a rabbi during a botched diamond heist, with a judge calling his conviction a miscarriage of justice.

Interestingly, the police are “standing by” the arrest, and deny any claims that there was any “witness coaching.”

Read the full story here.

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Exonerations, Eyewitness identification, False confessions, Reforming/Improving the system

Arizona Woman on Death Row for Murder of Her 4-year-old Son has Conviction Overturned

Posted on March 14, 2013 by | 2 Comments

Milke

Debra Milke was convicted of kidnapping, abusing and murdering her 4-year-old son. But a federal appeals judge says the prosecution was “unconstitutionally silent” on the “history of misconduct” of its key witness.

Read the full story here.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Capital punishment, False confessions, Police conduct (good and bad)

Monday’s Quick Clicks…

Posted on March 11, 2013 by | Leave a comment
click
  • Will Texas get an innocence commission?
  • Polygraphs and false confessions in Chicago
  • The North Carolina State Bar has released this proposed formal ethics opinion in response to a letter from Professor Jason Huber of Charlotte School of Law.  The proposed opinion addresses the question of whether a prosecutor who has come to believe that someone was wrongfully convicted can condition the initiation of a new proceeding or a dismissal on the convicted person’s release of civil claims against relevant law enforcement officials, including prosecutors.  The opinion says, “no,” concluding that a “prosecutor may not condition initiation of or cooperation in a proceeding to dismiss a conviction upon the convicted person’s release of civil claims against the prosecutor, law enforcement authorities, or other public officials or entities.”
  • PA Innocence Project has staff attorney position open
  • Oklahoma Justice Commission unveils proposals
  • House in State of Washington passes exoneree compensation bill

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Commissions/Innocence Commissions/Governmental Case Review Agencies, Compensation/Exoneree compensation, False confessions

Breaking News: Two Retrial Pleas Turned Down in Japan Today…

Posted on March 6, 2013 by | 2 Comments

Unbelievable…… Kagoshima District Court and Nagoya High Court  both turned down the retrial plea of two cases (Ohsaki Case and Fukui Case) today. Read about the Ohsaki Case here, and Fukui Case here.

Here is an article about the Ohsaki case by mainichi.jp:

Court rejects appeal for retrial over 1979 murder case

KAGOSHIMA, Japan (Kyodo) — The Kagoshima District Court rejected on Wednesday an appeal for a retrial filed by a woman who was convicted and served a 10-year prison term for killing her brother-in-law in 1979 in Kagoshima Prefecture for insurance money.

The decision came after the district court had initially decided to reopen the case involving Ayako Haraguchi, now 85, in 2002, which was overruled by the Fukuoka High Court in 2004. The high court’s decision was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court.

The murder occurred in October 1979, when Kunio Nakamura, 42, was found dead in a cattle stable beside his home in the town of Osaki, Kagoshima. Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Asia, Eyewitness identification, False confessions, Inquisitional and adversarial systems of justice

Tagged , , ,

Court to Decide Whether to Retry a Case from 1979 on March 6, 2013– Ohsaki Case

Posted on March 4, 2013 by | 3 Comments
Ms. Ayako Haraguchi. From 47news.

Ms. Ayako Haraguchi. From 47news.

The Kagoshima District Court will decide whether to opne a retrial for a  34-year-old case (so called Ohsaki/ Osaki Case) tomorrow. This is a case where confessions  were crucial pieces of evidence in determining the defendant’s guilt. Ayako Haraguchi, now 85 years of age, is seeking a retrial for the 2nd time. Will she get her day in court?

On October 15th 1979, the victim’s body was found in a barn in Ohsaki, Kagoshima Prefecture. The victim had been missing for 3 days. The police immediately suspected that the victim’s two older brothers, A and B, murdered him. After A and B confessed to the crime, they were arrested on the 18th. B’s son was also arrested on the 25th. On the 30th, A’s former wife, Ayako Haraguchi was also arrested, based on A and B’s confessions.

Haraguchi never confessed to the crime. However, the other three all confessed. They named Haraguchi as the principal, and admitted that they killed the victim by strangling him with a towel.

In March 1980, the Kagoshima District Court decided that Haraguchi was guilty of the murder. The sentence was 10 years in prison. Haraguchi lost the appeals, and served the time.

Haraguchi got out of prison in 1990, and petitioned to retry the case in 1995. Continue reading →

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Asia, False confessions, Inquisitional and adversarial systems of justice

Tagged , ,

Monday’s Quick Clicks…

Posted on March 3, 2013 by | 2 Comments
 click

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Compensation/Exoneree compensation, DNA, Eastern Europe, False confessions

Time: Why Innocent Men Make False Confessions

Posted on March 2, 2013 by | 1 Comment

From Time:

Following ongoing debates on the Daniel Taylor case, a write-up in Time by Adam Cohen (“Why Innocent Men Make False Confessions”, 11 February 2013) observes how false confessions are not an “strange anomaly”. Refers to recent studies confirming that they are among the common causes of wrongful convictions and usually involve young, uneducated, or mentally disabled accused persons who are frightened, unfamiliar with the criminal justice system, and often subject to police manipulation or pressure. Refers to documentaries on false confessions and wrongful convictions: West of Memphis and Central Park Five.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in False confessions, North America, Police conduct (good and bad)

Japan: Write-up in The Economist about False Confessions, Police Interrogations, Imprisonment in Japan

Posted on March 2, 2013 by | Leave a comment

There is an interesting write-up in The Economist (“Japan’s Prisons: Eastern Porridge”, 23 February 2013) that examines the role of confessions and police interrogations in Japan’s criminal justice system, among others. Here is an excerpt:

“Criminal courts in Japan have long relied heavily on confessions for proof of guilt. Though the accused have a right to silence, failure to admit a crime is considered bad sport. Besides, police have strong incentives to extract a confession and, with up to 23 days to interrogate a suspect, the blunt tools to do so, as a stream of disturbing incidents has shown. Detectives tracking down an anonymous hacker extracted separate confessions from four innocent people before being forced in December into a humiliating apology. Court conviction rates are over 99%.”

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Asia, False confessions, Police conduct (good and bad)

Coerced Confessions Obscure Justice

Posted on February 26, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Yesterday, Nicole Harris left the Dwight Correctional Center after serving seven years of a thirty year sentence. Her conviction in the death of her son, Jaquari, was overturned by a federal appeals court last October and earlier this month the 7th Court of Appeals ordered Harris’s release. Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Editorials/Opinion, False confessions, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Court of Appeals Orders Release of Imprisoned Chicago Mother

Posted on February 22, 2013 by | 3 Comments

As reported (here) in the Chicago Tribune, Nicole Harris will be freed no later than noon on Monday from Dwight Correctional Center as a result of two court actions. She’s served seven years of a 30-year sentence after being convicted of murder in the death of her four-year-old son, Jaquari.  As reported on this blog and the Chicago Tribune (here), last October a federal appeals court, ruling that Jaquari’s older brother, Dante—five at the time—should have been permitted to testify, reversed Nicole’s conviction. On Wednesday, the 7th Court of Appeals ordered Harris’s release from prison. Continue reading →

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Editorials/Opinion, False confessions, North America, Recantations