Chicago Prosecutors Blind to False Confession…

Press release from the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University….

Dear Friends,

This morning’s Chicago Tribune carries an excellent front-page story by Steve Mills detailing how the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has been giving short shrift to evidence that CWC client Daniel Taylor is innocent of the 1992 double murder for which he is serving life in prison without parole.

Taylor’s conviction rested on a confession that quite obviously is false; he couldn’t have been involved in the crime because he was in police custody when it occurred. For details, see the Mills story:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-murder-reinvestigation-20120507,0,6204252.story

As hard as it is for some people to believe that false confessions occur, they are in fact amazingly frequent. Since 1986, there have been 104 documented wrongful convictions in Illinois, and, counterintuitive as it may seem, more than half of those involved false confessions. For details, please see:

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/cwc/issues/causesandremedies/falseconfessions/FalseConfessionsStudy.html

Rob Warden, Executive Director

One response to “Chicago Prosecutors Blind to False Confession…

  1. Pingback: State’s Attorney’s Blind Eye to False Confession Raises Question of Conviction Integrity Sincerity | Wrongful Convictions Blog

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